



IOLOGICAL SERIES No. II. 


THEORY 


social Organization 


BY 

CHARLES FOURIER. 


WI Til A JST IJY TR 0 D U C T10 JV 

BY 

ALBERT BRISBANE. 



C. P. SOMERBY, 139 Eighth Street. 
1S7G. 

ir 





THE INTEGRAL METHOD OF STUDY; 


Organon of investigation in realms of the Abstract 
and Universal, which lie beyond the reach of 
Observation and unaided Analysis. 


tiie laws'!? 

or 53 

UNIVERSAL 

Order § Harmony 


The Basis of Authority 
and Guide of the Mind. 



DEDUCTION. 


AN 


1 S 


“ EXACT SCIENCE 

OF 

ANALOGY. 


I 3 


B0 A DY 

of 

UNIVERSAL 

AXIOMS. 


Albert Brisbane 

Up to the present time we have been able to admire in the works 
of man the Material Beautiful only. For the first time we shall see 
the Spiritual Beautiful—see God in person and in all llis Wisdom ; for 
what is the spirit, the wisdom of God, biit the Harmony of the twelve 
Passions, their complete development without any conflict, and in 
accord as perfect as that of an excellent orchestra ? This beautiful 
work is the only one tha j can give' to mortals an idea of the wisdom 
and glory of God. We now behold his material wisdom bursting forth 
in the harmonies of .the celestial spheres, and in the organizations of 
animated Nature, but we have no idea of His political and social wis¬ 
dom. In these spheres we recognize only the demoniacal spirit, of 
which our Societies, with their falseness, fraud and oppression, are the 
manifestation. The spirit of God will only be revealed in . the Har¬ 
mony of the passional Series; in their unity, their virtues, and the 
charm of perpetual Attraction to useful Industry. 



Ciiaiu.es Fourier. 








TABLE OF CONTENTS, 


I. General and Preliminary Views,.5 

II. Outline of an Integral Study of Nature — neglect of explor¬ 
ation on the part of the Scientific World, ... 12 

III. Duality of Social Destiny — Social Infancy of the Human 

Race,.22 


PART FIRST. 

ABSTRACT THEORY. 

Chap. 

I. Germs of Association, .... . . 30 

^ II. General View of the Social Destiny of Man—Existing 

Prejudices on the Subject,.43 

III. Omission of the Study of Man, — Necessity of Repairing 

this Neglect, . ..61 

IV. Liberty, . . . ^ . . ..69 

V. The Seven Natural Rights of Man, v . . . . 78 

VI. Commerce: Rank which it occupies in the four phases of 

Civilization,.. . .89 

VII. Passional Attraction, and the seven-fold Guarantee which 

it establishes between God and Man, . . . . Ill 

VIII. The Innumerable Absurdities with which God would be 
chargeable, had he failed to frame and reveal to Man a 
Social Code based on Attraction, . . . . . 128 

IX. Detailed Examination of the Seven Guarantees inherent 

in Attraction,.141 

X. The Alternative, in the Divine Mind, between Associated 

and Isolated'Industry, .... . 157 

APPENDIX. 

Noth. 

I. General View of the Theory of Universal Unily, . . 165 
II. Characteristics of Commerce,.191 








IV 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


Commercial License; its Known Evils and Unknown Dangers, 203 

I. Origin of Political Economy and of the Mercantile Con- V 


troversy,.205 

II. Spoliation of the Social Body by Bankruptcy, . . 208 

III. Spoliation of the Social Body by Monopoly and Fore¬ 

stalling, .214 

IV. Spoliation of the Social Body by Agiotage, . . .217 

V. Spoliation of the Social Body by Parasitism, . , 219 

VI. Concluding Remarks on Commerce, , . . .221 

VII. Decline of the Civilized Order through the influence 

of Joint-Stock Corporations,.223 

A New Currency and a New Credit System, . . . 228 




INTRODUCTION 

TO 

Fourier’s theory of social organization. 


Charles Fourier was born on the 7th of April, 1772, in Be- 
san^on, a city in the eastern part of France near the Swiss frontier. 
His father, a merchant in easy circumstances, gave him all the 
educational advantages which the times afforded, of which, from 
the honorable record of his career in the college of his native 
town, it appears young Fourier made excellent use. A Register 
of that city for 178G, containing a list of the college prizes for the 
previous year, shows that two were won by Charles Fourier; 
one for composition, and the other for Latin poetry. But the 
study above all others for which he early showed a marked incli¬ 
nation was geography. He seemed never to weary of the maps 
and atlases over which he would pore day and night, often spend¬ 
ing whole nights absorbed in some special work, purchased with 
money given him lor personal pleasures. Another of his strong 
tastes, manifested early, was the cultivation of flowers—a pecu¬ 
liarity of which was that he delighted in cultivating all the varie¬ 
ties he could obtain of a single species, evincing thus, as it were 
by instinct, the controlling idea of his riper years. Even in the 
undeveloped mind of the child, the passion for completeness and 
classification, which distinguished the future genius, was pro¬ 
nounced. 

Fourier loved music. He was indeed passionately fond of it, 
and almost without the aid of instruction learned to play upon, 
not one only, but several instruments, studying their various rela¬ 
tions and effects. He became after this manner a master of the 
theory of music and also a composer. In order that the reader 
may fully appreciate the value attached to music by Fourier, 
and the assistance which it rendered him in his great work of elabo¬ 
rating the theory of social organization, we will state just here 
what we conceive to be the definition of that art, and its function 
as a guide in the study of organization. Music is the distribution, 





classification, coordination and combination of sounds in a mens* 
ured order, resulting in the production of melody and harmony. 
It may then be called the harmonious Organization of Sounds, for 
organization is in reality but the synthesis of classification and 
combination. Music is the only art that has been developed to a 
state of exactness. Architecture, painting and all the sister arts 
are still in a purely empirical stage of development. Forms, 
colors, perfumes, flavors, etc., await the discovery by science of 
the theory of their harmonious combination. Vibrations or sounds 
are the sole elements in Nature the means of harmonizing which 
man has discovered, and therefore it is that this art serves as a 
model of the harmonious organization of elements in other branch¬ 
es of creation. As such, Fourier prized it highly, and made use 
of it as an analogical guide in the study of the art of organiza¬ 
tion-in general. 

Fourier attached great importance to the study of the positive 
sciences which were then making rapid progress and real con¬ 
quests. Whereas, for the speculative sciences—metaphysics, po¬ 
litical economy, ethics, etc.—which seemed to move without 
progress in a circle of error, he felt only aversion. As far as he 
was able, he studied anatomy, natural history, physics and astron¬ 
omy ; and in the latter, the most advanced, he discovered valuable 
examples of the laws and principles of universal Order and 
Harmony. 

A few traits of character manifested by Fourier in childhood 
are worthy of mention as showing the disposition of the man. 
Courage and firmness were conspicuous in all his relations with 
his associates. In those petty battles in which boys generally 
engage, he was always ready to defend the smaller boys against 
the larger, and though worsted would never give up or acknowl¬ 
edge defeat. On the other hand he was sympathetic and specially 
kind toward the poor. Instances are cited in which he gave away 
the luncheon prepared for him for school, and even went so far 
as to reserve a part of his own breakfast to carry to a poor favor¬ 
ite for whom his sympathies had become aroused. Another very 
remarkable trait in this boy was his tendency to mental analysis. 
One example will illustrate his peculiarity in this respect. He 
frequently accompanied his mother to the Confessional, and be¬ 
coming thus initiated into the character of this rite, he began, 
then at the age of seven or eight, to ponder over the subject very 
seriously. The result was that he drew up a list of all the sins 


8 


known to the Church, so far as he could collect them, and thus 
provided repaired alone to the Confessional, where he began a 
recitation of the whole list. The priest listened attentively for a 
few moments, and then, with a jocose reprimand, asked him what 
he was thinking of. Fourier answered that he wished to make 
a confession in which no sin should be overlooked. His idea 
being, that if he took in the whole category, he would secure an in¬ 
tegral absolution. This list of sins is now a relic of curiosity. It 
is written in a clear, firm hand, and the regularity and completeness 
of the analysis are very remarkable. In it we see a foreshadow¬ 
ing of the future analytic tables, distributed through the works of 
the great thinker. 

On leaving college, Fourier’s tastes led him to become an 
engineer, and he sought to enter the school of Mezieres, but not 
possessing the necessary conditions of birth, he was debarred ad¬ 
mittance there. His family wished him to engage in commercial 
pursuits, and the influences brought to bear upon this point were 
strong enough to induce him to do so. He was sent to Lyons 
about 1790 as a clerk in a commercial house, but his desire to 
travel being very great, he obtained the position of traveling clerk, 
at that time a special mark of confidence on the part of employers, 
in which capacity, facilitated by means received from his family, 
he visited the principal cities of France, Germany, Belgium and 
Holland. 

Early in his career, Fourier imbibed a strong antipathy for 
commerce, an abhorrence of it even. He saw the complication 
and waste, the falsehood and knavery, the monopoly, adulteration 
and other forms of fraud which are essential characteristics of our 
competitive and anarchical system of trade. To him it appeared 
the spoliator of productive industry—a parasite absorbing the 
wealth the latter created. He characterizes it in his strong lan¬ 
guage as “the bloodsucker of productive industry—a vulture 
preying upon its vitals.” Among the many incidents in his experi¬ 
ence which showed him the extent to which the license and abuses 
of commerce could be carried, was one which occurred at a time 
of famine in Marseilles, fie was connected with a firm which had 
monopolized all the rice arriving at that port, and while holding 
it for a rise in the market allowed it to rot on their hands. To 
Fourier, as confidential clerk, was delegated the task of destroying 
all traces of this hazardous undertaking by secretly throwing the 
rice into the sea at night. It was an operation which required 


4 


great caution, since, had a knowledge of it reached the populace, 
the House would have been mobbed. In this monopoly, Fourier 
saw an odious license, which, tolerated by society, permitted indi¬ 
viduals to speculate on the starvation of the people. It appeared 
to him an indirect, collective assassination^ perpetrated under legal 
forms; and under these impressions, Fourier was led to make a 
careful study of the whole system of commerce. He analyzed its 
mechanism and elaborated a regular theory of its function and 
influence in the industrial world—a work which should have been 
executed by the Political Economists, but which, strange to say, 
has as yet been entirely neglected by them. The experience of 
Fourier in commercial life was an important factor in his intel¬ 
lectual career. It was one of the prompting causes which led him 
to the study of social Science, as will be seen presently. Fourier’s 
father died leaving a patrimony of about 200,000 francs, two-fifths 
of which he gave to his son, who, in the early part of 1793, went 
to Lyons, invested his money in colonial produce and embarked 
in business. Scarcely had he become established, when the city of 
Lyons rose in insurrection against the revolutionary government 
at Paris. Indignant at the excesses of the Revolution, Lyons 
undertook to resist the powers of the Convention. In this strug 
gle, Fourier lost all his merchandise, which was confiscated for 
the use of the hospitals and the besieged. In addition to this, he 
was obliged to bear arms and do the duty of a soldier. He was 
engaged in some severe conflicts, and on one occasion the column 
of which he formed a part was almost entirely destroyed by the 
besiegers’ cavalry. He escaped, and with a few companions re¬ 
entered the city. When Lyons fell—October, 1793—the most 
sweeping and terrible massacres took place. Fourier was im¬ 
prisoned for the part he had involuntarily taken in tlie strife, and 
came near being executed, barely escaping the scaffold three times, 
almost by miracle. He remained some weeks in constant danger 
of death, succeeding finally in escaping to the country, where he 
remained concealed, till at length he returned to his native city. 
He was there imprisoned anew, and on obtaining his release through 
the intervention of an influential friend, was obliged to enter the 
regular service. He entered the cavalry where he remained two 
years. After his discharge, he spent a few months in Paris, Avhen 
in 1797, he resumed the occupation of a commercial traveler. 

Thus Fourier was a witness of, and personally involved in, 
the French Revolution, the most terrible political drama ever 


enacted before the eyes of men. With its agitation of new ideas 
and their bold application, its destructions and reconstructions, it 
was an experience well calculated to awaken in the human mind 
the deepest emotions and trains of thought. It was a lesson in 
political and social questions on a gigantic scale, and produced on 
Fourier a profound impression. This was the second factor in 
impelling him to the study of the vast problem of social recon¬ 
struction. 

Before proceeding to speak of the influence which the commer¬ 
cial career, together with the experience of the French Revolution, 
execised upon Fourier, we will give a brief sketch of the per¬ 
sonality of this man, which was one of marked peculiarities. At 
the time we knew him, in 1832, he was sixty years old. His general 
appearance was that of a country gentleman, with manners wholly 
unaffected, simple and polite, but distant and reserved. The im¬ 
pression he produced was that of a cast-steel soul, firm and inflex¬ 
ible, and_ although not melancholy or misanthropic, he always 
wore an air of great mental preoccupation and absorption. During 
the two years of our acquaintance with him we do not remember 
ever to have seen him smile. Fourier was of medium height, 
compactly built and rather broad across the shoulders, stooping 
slightly. His head was remarkably spherical. It was nearly as 
thick through as it was long, and high above the ears. His fore¬ 
head was without any marked protuberances or “ bumps,” and 
retreated gently, the brow being broad and massive, the eyebrows 
delicate. His eyes, of a bluish grey, were very large, with the 
pupils so contracted that they appeared mere points on the large 
corneas, and gave great intensity and penetration to his look. Under 
the strong brow, the expression was one of great power. His nose 
was very prominent, ridged at the top and sharply pointed. His 
lips were thin and drawn down at the corners, the latter feature 
giving him what is called the lion-mouth ; below which was a 
chin, large,.strong and finely moulded. The general aspect of the 
face called to our mind that of Dante, except that it was heavier 
and more massive.* 

* A journalist speaking of Fourier at the time ol his death describes him thus: 
Fourier was a small, thin man, with the brow of Socrates ; all the superior faculties 
of the mind and soul were portrayed in the lines of his physiognomy by the irre¬ 
proachable contour of his head. If Gigoux’s potrait is a bold, proud and irresistible 
picture, before which, at the last exhibition, the most sneering stopped with enthusi¬ 
asm, what would they have done at the aspect of the model, a singular and strong 
type, a reproduction of what is wanting in the work of Leopold Robert ? In the eyes 


Of Fourier’s intellectual personality little needs to be said, since 
that speaks for itself in the immortal works he has left behind 
him, but we may state a few facts relating to his early experience 
which strongly exhibit his peculiar mental tendencies. The 
originality of his genius is shown by several minor inventions and 
discoveries which he made before undertakingvliis great work. 
While studying music, he made an innovation in musical nota¬ 
tion, which, if adopted, would facilitate greatly the reading of 
music by abolishing the complications of the clefs. Musicians 
who have examined this innovation say that its adoption would 
be a great improvement. 

At nineteen, observing a cabriolet roll rapidly upon a hard, smooth 
Park-road with scarcely any friction, he conceived the idea of a 
mode of locomotion since realized by our railroads. “The en¬ 
gineer to whom I spoke of the idea,” says Fourier, “laughed at 
me.” While in the Army, he proposed to Carnot, then Minister 
of War, a plan for the rapid movement of troops and munitions. 
Carnot wrote him, “ Acknowledging with gratitude the important 
observations contained in your communication,” adding that the 
observations had received the particular attention of the ministry. 
In 1803 he published an article in a Lyons paper, in which he 
pointed out to Napoleon a plan of future policy to be pursued ; at 
the same time prophesying what changes must inevitably take 
place in European politics. Napoleon was so much struck with 
the article that he sent to Lyons to ascertain the name of its 
author ; but on learning that he was only a young clerk in a com¬ 
mercial house, pursued the subject no further. This article was 
indeed remarkable—almost prophetic. 

In 1805 or ’6, amid the preoccupation of war and military poli¬ 
tics, he foresaw and described with accuracy, the future formation 
of vast joint-stock Companies, destined to monopolize and control 
all branches of industry, commerce and finance, and establish 
what he termed “an industrial or commercial Feudalism,”—a Feu¬ 
dalism that would control society by the power of Capital, as did 
the old Baronial or Military Feudalism by the power of the sword, 
and as despotically. Under the dominion of the great Barons, 
who leagued together to control the social world, there was a 

of Fourier, in which burned incessantly a fixed and abstracted fire, in which the 
despair of the unknown thinker pierced through the continual engrossments of the 
economist, you read so much unhappiness, so much perseverance, so much elevation, 
that you had a presentiment of his genius even before becoming acquainted with 
him. 


monopoly of the then existing wealth, namely, the land and the 
laboring classes. Now, Society, having passed out of the military 
regime, and entered the industrial and commercial, is threatened 
with another vast system of monopoly, the advent of which 
Fourier prophesis as follows : 

“Among the influences tending to restrict man’s industrial 
rights, I will mention the formation of privileged Corporations 
which, monopolizing a given branch of Industry, arbitrarily close 
the doors of labor against whomsoever they please. These Corpo¬ 
rations will become dangerous, arfd lead to new convulsions 
on being extended to the whole industrial and commercial 
system. This event is not far distant, and it will be brought 
about all the more easily as it is not apprehended. The 
greatest evils have often sprung from imperceptible germs, as for 
instance, Jacobinism ; and if our Civilization has engendered 
this and so many other calamities, may it not engender others 
which we do not now foresee ? The most imminent of these is 
the birth of a commercial Feudalism, or the Monopoly of Com¬ 
merce and Industry by large joint-stock Companies, leagued 
together for the purpose of usurping and controlling all branches 
of industrial operations. Extremes meet, and the greater the 
extent to which anarchical competition is carried, the nearer is 
the approach to universal monopoly, which is the opposite excess. 
Circumstances are tending toward the organization of the com¬ 
mercial and industrial classes into federal Companies or affiliated 
Monopolies, which operating in conjunction with the great landed 
interest will reduce the middle and laboring classes to a state of 
commercial vassalage, and by the influence of combined action 
become the masters of the productive industry of entire nations. 
The small operators will be reduced to the position of mere agents, 
working for the mercantile coalition. We shall then see the re¬ 
appearance of Fuedalism in an inverse order, founded on mercan¬ 
tile Leagues, and answering to the Baronial Leagues of the middle 
ages.” 

“ Everything is concurring to produce this result. The spirit 
of commercial speculation and financial monopoly has extended 
to all classes. Public opinion prostrates itself before the bankers 
and financiers, who share authority with the Governments, and 
devise every day new means for the monopoly and control of 
Industry.” 

“We are marching with rapid strides toward a Commercial 


8 


Feudalism, and to the fourth phase of our Civilization. The 
Economists, accustomed to reverence everythin# which comes in 
the name and under the sanction of Commerce, will see this new 
Order spring up without alarm, and will consecrate tlieir servile 
pens to the celebration of its praises. Its debut will be one of 
brilliant promise, but the result will be an Industrial Inquisition, 
subordinating the whole People to the interests of the affiliated 
monopolists.” 

This was written seventy years ago, when public attention was 
absorbed in military conquests and glory. To-day, advanced 
thinkers on social questions are beginning to see the conquest of 
the industrial and commercial worlds by the power of associated 
Capital. To-day the New Feudalism has more than half entangled 
Society in its meshes, and its complete establishment stares us in 
the face. What perspicuity on the part of Fourier, to have fore¬ 
seen so clearly what is now being realized! If prescience is a test 
of science—if the foretelling of future events is a test of a 
knowledge of the laws which govern them, and from which they 
are deducible, then Fourier must have discovered at least some 
of the laws which govern social evolution. 

These examples are sufficient to indicate the original and inno¬ 
vating character of Fourier’s mind. We will now point out the 
influence of his commercial experience in directing his attention 
to social problems. 

When he had recognized the true character of the present com¬ 
mercial system—the incoherence, complication and waste, the fraud 
and falsity that reign therein—he began investigating the .means 
of a commercial reform, of introducing veracity, economy and 
order in the system of exchange of products, and in the industrial 
world. As he studied the question, he saw that Commerce as 
now prosecuted is an effect of the industrial system as a whole— 
of the individualism, incoherence and disorder that reign in it; 
Or, in other words, of Industry prosecuted by isolated families 
without association, concert of action, and mutual understanding. 
In this state of what may be termed indastrud anarchy , a class 
assumes and monopolizes the exchange of product*, and manages 
this exchange in its own exclusive interest, taking advantage of 
and spoliating the producing classes in a thousand ways. Fourier 
saw that to effect a Commercial reform, Association and Coopera¬ 
tion must be established among the agricultural classes. So 
long as the isolated families of a community continue to make 


9 


their purchases and sales separately, the basis of the present com¬ 
mercial system will be preserved. It is only by removing the 
primary cause, which is industrial incoherence and want of con¬ 
certed action, that a radical change can be effected. 

When Fourier found himself face to face with this vast problem 
of Association—the Association of human beings in their indus¬ 
trial labors and social relations—he saw that to solve it he must 
discover the means of associating the Passions of men, their char¬ 
acters, tastes and inclinations. How effect this result ? How 
combine and harmonize those forces, apparently so discordant, 
condemned by moral philosophy as incapable of harmony, and by 
theology as depraved and vicious ? In grappling with this great 
problem of the Harmony of the Passions, Fourier went to the 
central principle of social Science, which implies the discovery, 
first, of the Laws which govern those forces, and second, of a 
social Organism in and through which they can act normally and 
harmoniously.* 

The social Organism is the Instrument through which the 
Passions in their external and collective action operate. It is their 
collective Body , and stands to them in the same relation objectively 
that the individual body stands to'them subjectively. If the Passions 
are susceptible of harmony in their action,-then there must exist 
Laws which regulate and determine the modes_of that action ; 
and the knowledge of these laws is as important in social mechanics 
as is in celestial mechanics the knowledge of the law which governs 
the force that moves the planets. 

It was about 1798 that Fourier conceived clearly the necessity 
of these laws and applied himself to their search, which he prose¬ 
cuted for a period of six years, and, as he claims, finally dis¬ 
covered. One of these laws—that of which he has made the most 
use in his deductions, and has described in greatest detail—is what 
he terms the Law of the Series, or the Series of groups,—more 
fully defined, the Series of contrasted, /waltzed and interlaced groups. 
A more abstract formula would be the Series of groups in accord, 

* By the Passions Fouriek designates the forces or motors in man which impel him 
to action. These motors are of three classes : 

1. The Sensuous, attracting him to Nature the live Senses. 

2. The Moral or Social, attracting him to Humanitythe Sentiments or Affections. 

3. The Intellectual motors, attracting him to Laws and Principles, to Organization 
and Order;—the Intellectual Faculties. 

Pivot: the Cosmical motor, attracting him to the Universe the religious Aspira¬ 
tion, spiritual gravitation. 





10 


dissonance and modulation. It is the law of distribution and 
classification in creation. This law was spoken of by its discov¬ 
erer as “la clieville ouvriere de l’harmonie universelle”—the 
mainspring of universal harmony. 

The laws which govern the development of the Passions are the 
same, Fourier affirms, as those which govern all branches of crea¬ 
tion. They are manifested in the Planetary, Musical, Mathemati¬ 
cal and other harmonies known to us, and in the organizations of 
nature. The parts or members of every organic Whole are dis¬ 
tributed, classified and combined according to one system of lairs. 
This system applies alike to the notes of music, which are the 
elements of musical harmony ; to the bones of the humany bodj", 
which are those of an osseous harmony ; to the planets of the solar 
system, which are those of siderial harmony ; and to the Passions 
of the Soul, which are those of social harmony. 

Fourier states explicitly that he takes these Laws as his 
guide and deduces from them his social construction. They were, 
figuratively, the Intellectual Compass with which he threaded the 
obscurities and mazes of the most complex and abstract of sciences. 
In a hundred places in his writings he affirms that he gives no 
theory of his own, declaring that he would be ashamed to add 
another to the thousand speculative theories which have already 
been evolved and exploded. He rejects as a vain assumption the 
idea that human reason can evolve by its own speculations and 
ratiocinations so complex a science as that of social Organization. 
As well might it attempt to solve abstruse problems in planetary 
movement without the aid of the law of gravitation. 

The claim, then, which Fourier makes, is to have discovered 
the laws of distribution, classification and combination in creation 
—the Laws of Universal Order and Harmony—and to have de¬ 
duced from them the theory of social organization which he has 
given to the world. In answer to criticisms upon his theory, he 
was accustomed to say : “There are but two points to be deter¬ 
mined ; first, whether I have really discovered these Laws; and, 
second, whether I have made a correct deduction from them. If 
I have failed in either of these particulars, let men of science 
point out my errors and execute the work which I have under¬ 
taken. Let them discover the laws and make the deductions.” 
Fourier thus plants himself on a true foundation—the only one 
that human reason can stand upon in its higher intellectual labors. 
He takes as his Standard of Authority the laws of Universal 


11 


Order and Harmony, and employs as his Method, Deduction from 
them. It is this ground which the human mind, when scientifi¬ 
cally enlightened, is destined to occupy in the future ; and upon 
this ground only can there be a full comprehension by man of 
himself, his destiny and the plan of the Cosmos.* 

The important work now incumbent upon the thinkers of our 
age is the discovery of the Laws of which we have spoken— 
the Laws which underlie the phenomena of creation, regulating 
their distribution, coordination and combination. They must be 
discovered and systematized, reduced to a body, and thus the 
Science of Laws —the Science of Sciences, created. This 
Science is the foundation of that integral Method of study and 
investigation which human reason has so long sought, and which 
it must discover and apply in order to operate in those ab- 

* Fourier’s position may be better appreciated by a comparison with that of 
Auguste Comte and of Herbert Spencer. Comte takes as his guide, in social 
construction, Deduction from the historical past. He transforms the last “organic 
stage” of human society—the Catholico-Feudal of the middle ages—into the “ posi¬ 
tive social state” of the future. The Military regime is transformed into an Indus¬ 
trial regime, the great Barons being replaced by “ directing Capitalists.” Serfdom 
is transformed into “ proletarianism;” the serfs becoming employees, working for 
wages under the direction of the Capitalists. Religion becomes science ; the Priest¬ 
hood giving place to a body of scientists, called the “ Scientific Priesthood.” 

Having elaborated this skeleton construction—this transformation of the medieval 
system—he then supplements it by his own conceptions, intuitions and fancies. 
Humanity—le grand Etre (the Great Being) as he terms it—takes the place of the 
“hypothetical” God of the theological past. To live in the Great Being and its 
memories takes the place of immortality. Other parts of his theory, as, for instance, 
the rights and position of woman, seem to us, in like manner, dictated by his own 
personal feelings and conceptions. In his first work, “ The Positive Philosophy,” he 
expounds a method of investigation based upon “Observation and Reasoning, and 
the study of the relations of phenomena.” When, in his “ Positive Politics,” he comes 
to the great work of social Construction, he is obliged to resort to the fragmentary 
and partial principle of Historical Deduction, supplemented by Ms subjective Specu¬ 
lations,—his Method being entirely inadequate in this complex field of study. 

Herbert Spencer is now' engaged in elaborating a Sociology. In his past w'orks, he 
has used as his Method and Guide a single Law in Nature: that of Evolution. This 
law was first perceived in the material world, and there explained in its operations 
by Goethe and Yon Baer. Spencer has applied it to the intellectual and moral worlds, 
and will doubtless use it in his social construction. This law which explains 
Succession in Events and Processes is an important one, yet it is only one of the laws 
of Nature which humanity must discover and apply. By itself, it is totally inade¬ 
quate to guide the mind in the vast and complex work of social organization. As 
well undertake to explain the whole realm of Chemical combination and organiza¬ 
tion with the single law of affinity. How shall he with the simple law of Evolution 
organize complex social institutions and regulate the development of the psychical 
Forces ? - 



12 


stract and complex realms which lie beyond observation and 
practical analysis. In the elaboration of an exact Social Science, 
such a Method is indispensable. The work being both abstruse 
and abstract, it can not be accomplished without it. As well un¬ 
dertake to explain the precession of the equinoxes, or the secular 
variations of the moon without the aid of the Law of gravitation ; 
or in the Material world to execute vast works, like the Mt. Cenis 
tunnel and the Suez Canal, without the aid of the steam-engine 
and the powerful machinery which modern genius has invented. 
Comte’s Method of historical Deduction, and the law of Evolution, 
employed by Spencer, are, in the vast field of Social construction, 
of no more efficiency than would be little hand-tools—drillp, 
chisels, hammers, spades, etc.—in the field of vast material con¬ 
struction. We can not too strongly express the importance of 
discovering the Science of Lairs, and of an integral Organon or 
Instrument of reasoning based upon them—an Organon which is 
destined to hold the same relations to the Methods and Organons 
now in use, that the steam-engine and other modern machinery 
hold to the little tools of former ages, worked by hand. Such an 
Organon will be, figuratively speaking, the Intellectual Steetm- 
engiae , enabling the mind to work with the logical powers of the 
Cosmos,* as the Steam-Engine enables the hands to work with the 
material powers of Nature. 

From Fourier’s experience in commerce, it will now be seen 
how he was led by the desire of effecting a Commercial Reform 
to the conception of the necessity of Association, in which only, 
such a reform is possible, and from that again to the study of the 
problem of the “ Harmony of the Passions,” without which 
harmony, Association itself is impracticable. Brought, as we 
have said, face to face with this involved jproblem, he compre¬ 
hended that it could not be solved except by discovering the Laws 
which govern the psychical Forces and ragulate their develop- 

*“ It was Pythagoras, who was the first of all historical men to utter the great 
word Cosmos, in the sense we attach to that word. He called the Universe ‘ Order 
the ornamentally ordered; regarding it as not merely a physical, but also a moral and 
spiritual Whole, whose parts are harmoniously linked together, acting and reacting 
on each other, and which in its eternal cycle of revolution, forever reveals the same 
divine Idea.”— Bunsen. 

“The system, of law, harmony and truth, combined within the Universe.”— 
Humboldt. 

Cosmos, then, is equivalent to the Universe, the All, the Great Whole; but it 
implies a more complete internal organization. 


ment and action in society. These laws, he saw, could he none 
other than the laws of general order and harmony in creation ; for 
the psychical Forces are a part of the universe, and as a conse¬ 
quence must he subjected, like its other forces and phenomena, to 
its general system of laws.* Fourier was thus conducted step by 
step from the study of a simple and practical problem in social 
polity to t he study of the most complex problems in social Science. 

The Laws which govern the Passions in their social develop¬ 
ment are, it is evident, those on which Society with its institutions 
should be based, for Society—the social Organism—being, as 
already stated, the external Form or Body of the passional Forces, 
must be in unity with them, so that the laws which regulate the 
Action of the former are necessarily the laws of Organization of t he 
latter. " 

We have now explained the influence which the commercial ex¬ 
perience of Fourier’s early life exercised upon his mind ; the 

*It is commonly held by men that the Passions are Forces which are unstable, vicious 
and incoherent in their action, and subject to no fixed laws. In refutation of this 
superficial opinion, let us cite three points : 

1 . Historical experience shows that the Passions are to-day what they were 5,000 
years ago. Love and ambition, for example, are the same that they were then, save 
some variations in their mode of development. This uniformity and persistence of 
action demonstrate that they are subject to fixed laws, and further, that they furnish 
the elements of an exact science. 

2. Man stands at the head of Creation. He is the result of a vast evolution below 
him. Beginning with the nervous and instinctive organization of the radiates, we 
find an ascending series of creations, culminating in the cerebral organization and 
the system of psychical forces in man. Now, unless we assume that the whole 
creative evolution preceding him is one of incoherence, without design and scientific 
sequence, we can not attribute imperfection and falseness to the final result of this 
great evolution. If man in his physical organization sums up the organic wisdom 
of creation, he must, in like mannar, sum it up in his psychical organization, for 
unity of system reigns in the two realms. 

3. The psychical Forces in man, constituting a whole, ca’led the Soul, are a part 
of and identical with the universal Soul-Force. If Order and Harmony are attri¬ 
butes of the latter' they must also be of the former. It is true that the Forces in man 
may be misdirected and perverted in their development by Institutions unsuited to 
them, as they now are; but that does not change their real nature—their essence. That 
Order and Harmony are attributes of the Universal Soul is,proved by the fact that they 
exist in the organizations of the material world, which are effects of that spiritual 
principle—as mathematics is an effect of the human mind and a manifestation of its 
action in numbers and forms. 

These proofs indicate in an abstract manner that the Passions of the Soul are stable 
and permanent in their action, are governed by laws, and furnish the subject-matter 
of an exact science. 



14 


direction it gave liis studies, and the result. The next important 
event in his career was the spectacle of the French Revolution. 
He was a witness of that terrible political drama of its destruc¬ 
tions and massacres. He saw the blind frenzy of parties, the wide¬ 
spread devastation and disruption, and found himself drawn into 
the struggle at the cost of his fortune, almost of his life. And 
finally, he saw, as the result of all those horrors, but fragmentary 
political reforms, while the fundamental elements of the great 
Social structure remained untouched. He was deeply impressed, 
and the leading train of thought evolved in his mind appears to 
have been that, either some demoniacal spirit governs the uni¬ 
verse, or the state of things on our globe is false, in contradiction 
to the order of the universe, and that man is not fulfilling 
his destiny. He could but conclude that there must exist a contra¬ 
diction between the state of things on our earth and the general 
order of the universe—a conflict between the part and the whole, 
the microcosm and the macrocosm. 

This conception is expressed in Fourier’s works with great, 
force, and gives rise to his most bitter criticisms on our civilization, 
which he regarded as a violation of the Divine Order, and de¬ 
nounced as a social pandemonium from which Divine justice and 
goodness had been banished. In the chapters on “Passional Attrac¬ 
tion” and “The Divine Code,” the feeling engendered by this con¬ 
ception will be found strongly stated. He draws a clear line of 
demarcation between the order which reigns in the Cosmos and the 
disorder which reigns on the Earth ; and separating the two realms, 
discriminates between their states. In the Cosmos, lie assumes, 
mathematical order and harmony must reign, otherwise it could 
not maintain itself, for disorder can lead in the end only to destruc¬ 
tion. The planetary harmonies and the general economy of the uni¬ 
versal whole, so far as comprehended by man, attest this truth. 
On the earth, as we know, discord and incoherence prevail. Our 
Globe and Humanity must, then, be out of unity with the order of 
the Universe, and consequently in an abonormal condition. 

What is the cause of this Disunity? Theology answers that 
man at the origin of his existence disobeyed the Divine com¬ 
mands and fell, entailing upon himself a depraved nature, with 
the doom of living on an earth accursed. Our Globe and Human¬ 
ity then are lost elements in the Universe, with the reservation to a 
few faithful of salvation in another world. 

Philosophy, guessing and speculating with childlike simplicity, 


» 


observing man, in liis undeveloped state, sensual and selfish, holds 
him to be incapable of any high spiritual elevation. Interpreting 
the future by the past, it assumes that the disorders which now 
reign are normal and permanent; leaving it to be inferred that this 
state of Disunity is ordained. This is the superficial view of man¬ 
kind in general—a deduction from imperfect data, raised to a 
theory. The apparently long historical past overwhelms the mind 
and induces the belief that it must be a true exponent of the nor¬ 
mal life of Humanity in its career on the Globe. 

The theory of Evolution as applied to Sociology, takes a more 
advanced view of this subject. It sees a vast progressive vibra¬ 
tion toward equilibrium, and toward order and happiness. This > 
vibration is the effect of the action of the psychical forces com¬ 
bined with the influence upon them of their external environment. 
The Evolutionist’s future is, however, vague and indefinite. The 
succession and sequence of past events is explained ; the rise from 
social homogenity to heterogenity is pointed out; but no exact 
theory of social Organization is arrived at, nor can it be with the 
principle of Evolution alone as a guide. 

Fourier, guided by his Laws, shows that Humanity is in the 
early stage of its social career—in its social childhood, engaged in 
developing the elements of society, namely : industry, the arts, 
sciences, and institutions, and in making experiments in their 
combination and organization. The different systems of society, 
which have been established up to the present time, are the success¬ 
ive stages through which humanity has passed.* The elements 

* The, great chain of progressive Societies, which have led to and culminated in our 
modem civilization, are the following: 

1. The Egyptian, the oldest, founded in the valley of the Nile at least sixty centuries 
B. C. 

2. The Semitic, comprising the Chaldean, Assyrian and Babylonian in the basins of ' 
the Tigris and Euphrates, and the Phoenician, Jewish, and Carthagenian on or near 
the Mediterranean coast. 

3. The Medean and Persian (the first Aryan society) in Middle Asia. 

4. The Greek and Roman (the dark-haired and black-eyed Aryans) around the 
shores of the Mediterranean. 

5. The Teutonic, (the light-haired and blue-eyed Aryans), also known as the 
Cal holico-Feudal, occupying the Continent of Europe, and of which our modern Civ¬ 
ilization is the continuation, and the transition to a new order. 

The out-lying Societies, such as the Chinese, Japanese, Tartar, Mexican, and others, 
are outside of this chain or series, and have exercised no real influence on the course 
of progressive history. Not even the Hindoo civilization, founded by the Aryan race 
that migrated early into India, is included in the great historical current. This race 
became stagnant through its institution of Caste, and took no positive part in the 


16 


of society—the materials of the social structure—are as yet incom¬ 
pletely elaborated, but sufficiently so to admit of the primary or¬ 
ganization of the normal order of society in its simpler form. 
The social constructions which have taken place in the past are 
the work of the instincts and speculations of the founders of 
society. More exactly stated, they are the product of the intuitions, 
emotions, and interests of theocratic and military rulers, and of the 
speculations of philosophers and legislators. Thus they have been 
founded upon the the arbitrary laws of men, instead of the Cos- 
mical or Divine laws. 

The work of elaborating the elements of society is still in active 
progress in our modern Civilization. Industry and the physical 
Sciences—the two primary material elements—are receiving a 
special impetus. We see this in the great inventions which have 
been made in the first—the steam engine, steamboat, railroad, and 
powerful machinery ; and the discoveries which have been made 
in the second—astromomv, mechanics, chemistry, geology, etc. 
In the work of construction, some partial modifications are in prog¬ 
ress, but the activity of our Civilization in this field is mainly 
negative; that is, directed to destroying the institutions of the past. 
Some reforms are introduced, but there are no really new organi¬ 
zations. It is evident, therefore, that Huipanity is still living under 
an order of society, the elements of which are but Incompletely 
developed, and the organization of which is based on arbitrary and 
artificial Laws devised b} r human reason. If Humanity with its 
Globe is out of unity with the general plan of cosmical order and 
destinies, it is because it is living under this incomplete and im¬ 
perfect social organism. Its psychical Forces are left undeveloped 
or are falsely developed by its Institutions, and it is without indus¬ 
trial combination and association. It is hence in a state of 
Social discord, and of Industrial weakness. The disorders which 
exist in the social world—war, oppression, servitude, poverty, 


direct line of Social development. If we draw a circle around Constantinople extend¬ 
ing about 1,000 miles toward each of the four cardinal points, we embrace the entire 
scene of the historical development of Humanity, effected by the three races—the 
Egyptian and Semite on the one hand, and the dark-haired and light-haired Aryans on 
other. The social evolution, begun by the Egyptians, has been continued by success¬ 
ive stages down to the present time. The nations of workers have appeared and dis¬ 
appeared, but the work has gone on, and the fundemental creations of each Civili¬ 
zation has been transmitted to the succeeding ones. Thus have the essentially val¬ 
uable labors of humanity been preserved and handed down from civilization to civili¬ 
zation, even to the present day. 





17 


fraud, moral discord, epedemics, vice, crime, and the conflicts of 
all interests; and those which exist in nature—the deserts, marshes 
and waste places on the earth’s surface ; the parasite and noxious 
creations in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and the excesses 
in the atmospheric and climatic systems—are effects of the false 
social conditions under which Humanity has lived and is living, 
and are signs of its Disunity with the universal Order. These 
social and physical disorders, taken as a whole, constitute what 
is called the Reign of Evil. 

We know the explanation given regarding this reign by Theo¬ 
logy and Philosophy. The simple explanation of the problem is, 
that Evil is the consequence of and attendant upon the transitional 
stages in social evolution, that is, 

Upon incomplete Organization, with its imperfections, accom¬ 
panied by 

False Organizatian, with its violations and derangements. 

We may add, also, non-Organization ; which, however, only 
takes place within the sphere of incomplete Organization, and 
applies merely to parts and details. Let us explain this point 
briefly : Complete Organization is the normal state—that to which 
the finite thing is predestined. The elements, constituting any 
organic thing or whole, are in this state distributed, combined and 
arranged in conformity with a general plan, so that equation, 
equilibrium, symmetry, order and unity exist among them, giv¬ 
ing rise to what may be called rela'ue perfection. Incomplete 
organization is an abnormal state ; it is a preparatory, and trans¬ 
itional stage of evolution through which the finite thing passes to 
attain its predestined condition. In it the elements or parts are 
not all as yet developed, and are not distributed, combined and ar¬ 
ranged according to their appointed plan. Therefore, non-equation, 
non-equilibrium, disproportion, and disunity are the result. This 
is what may be called relative imperfection. The attributes of the 
first state constitute wliat is synthetically termed Cood ; those of 
the second state, Evil. To give a concrete idea of these opposite 
states—the Good and the Evil —we will adduce two familar illus¬ 
trations : 

The ripe fruit, whose constituent elements are fully developed 
and organized, illustrates the first or normal state—that in which 
it is agreeable to the palate and healthy ; the unripe fruit, the 
elements of which are undeveloped and incompletely organized, 
is in the second or abnormal state, in which it is disagreeable to 


18 


the palate and unhealthy. The first is for the fruit the state of Good; 
the second, that of Evil. The full grown (fully organized and 
developed) Man is in the normal and predestined state—strong, 
intelligent and self-directing; while the Child (the undeveloped 
Man) is in the opposite state—preparatory and transitional—in 
which it is weak, ignorant and incapable of self-direction. One 
is a state of relative perfection for the human being ; the other that 
of relative imperfection. 

False Organization, which is the effect of misdirecting, perturb¬ 
ing and perverting influences, is a frequent attendant on the stage 
of incomplete Organization. It consists in an inverted or false 
combination of elements—a contradiction of the principles of true 
Organization. Political despotisms are false organizations of 
Government, established amid the imperfections and disorders 
accompanying incomplete social organisms. The Institutions of 
slavery and hirelingism are false organizations of labor, in¬ 
cident to the incomplete organization of industry. The frauds, 
adulterations and extortions of Commerce are effects accompany¬ 
ing the present false organization of the Exchange of products. 

The violation of the laws of organization is also a source of 
Evil. Disease, for instance, which is a violation of health, is a 
negation of the condition of the organism in its normal state, and 
a cause Of suffering—hence a source of Evil. 

We now catch a glimpse of the real cause of Evil in the 
Universe. It is an effect attendant upon incomplete Organization 
with its imperfections and undeveloped conditions, complicated 
by false Organization, and by the violation of the normal organic 
State. 

But, it will be asked, Why, in the scheme of Creation, is incom¬ 
plete Organization with its attendant imperfections necessary ? 
Why must the finite thing pass through this transitional process ? 
Could it not be overleaped and complete Organization established 
without transition ? We answer : Nothing can be created at once 
—at a flash. There must always be a transition from the non- 
being to the being, and every new Creation must pass through a 
formative process, occupying a certain period of time before it 
can reach its normal state. A man is not born full grown, with 
a complete physical and mental organization. Before he reaches 
his fully developed state, he passes through two transitional or 
preparatory stages. First, the Formative or Embryonic stage, 
during which the new organism is formed in the womb of the 


19 


mother ; second, the Infantile and Juvenile stage, during which 
the organism is exercised, trained and educated. The third stage 
(that of full development) follows the two preceding. 

We will designate these three stages of Evolution through which 
every created Organism must pass, as : 

1. The Formative or Embryonic stage. 

2. The Simple-Organic stage. 

3. The Compound-Organic stage. 

This law of Evolution applies universally. Our Globe, for ex¬ 
ample, is subject to the three stages. It did not spring suddenly 
into existence. It had to pass through the long geological ages 
during which the strata of its crust and the creations on them were 
elaborated. This first stage was the Formative or Embryonic. 
The appearance of man and the present flora and fauna marked 
the completion of the Embryonic stage, and the beginning of the 
Simple Organic. The Compound-Organic stage of the Globe will 
be attained only when the human race, living under a true 
social Organism, shall be able to effect its Universal and Scientific 
cultivation, and the full development of the Creations upon it. 
To illustrate the same principle on a small scale, we may take 
the Construction of an Edifice. It is very patent to observation 
that a building can not spring instantly into existence. The same 
transitional stages under another form must be passed through 
before it can reach completion. 

These facts are made known to us by empirical experience and 
observation ; but the law of necessity upon which they are based, 
is hot thus disclosed. If we seek to penetrate deeper, and to dis¬ 
cover why the transitional stages—often so long and attended with 
so much Evil—are necessary, the following is the solution at 
which we arrive : 

There exists in the universe two principles, co-existent and in¬ 
destructible, namely : Matter and Force. They are the Static 
and Dynamic elements in Creation. Matter (the substratum of 
concrete creations) is inert and passive; Force, the dynamic 
principle, acts on Matter, moulding and fashioning it to given 
ends. Matter, being static, necessarily resists Force, otherwise 
it would not be static, and the dynamic principle would have 
nothing to act upon. To overcome such resistance, Force must 
exercise successive acts of energy, or successive vibrations ; and 
this succession constitutes progressive development with the 
necessity of a formative process, and involves what is termed Time. 


20 


Matter in addition to being static, is molecular or particled, and 
necessarily so, for were it absolutely solid and indivisible, no 
special creations could be evolved from it. Force in its evolu¬ 
tions operates on these molecules, and aggregates them success¬ 
ively ; and this Successive Aggregation gives rise also to the forma¬ 
tive process, and determines Extension , which, in turn, involves 
the necessity of Space. A formative stage, and Time and Space 
are consequently conditions inherent in the nature of Matter 
and Force. They necessarily accompany all processes of Creation, 
and the two latter measure the transitional stages, rendering tangi¬ 
ble to our finite perceptions the duration'of the period of incom¬ 
pleteness, and the reign of Evil. 

From the above premises, it is evident that in all finite creations 
the nature of Matter and Force determines the necessity of a 
process of formation, of a transitional stage, preparatory to organ¬ 
ization and concrete existence. This stage, we repeat, must be one 
of incompleteness, accompanied by imperfection ; which incom¬ 
pleteness and imperfection, being the negation of the conditions of 
complete organization, give rise to phenomenal effects, denomi¬ 
nated Evil. Viewed in its fundamental light, Evil simply sums 
up synthetically all the conditions and effects, inherent in the 
process of finite Creation, and in the nature of Matter and Force. 

Now if we seek to penetrate still deeper into the mystery of 
Evil, the only question, it seems to us, which remains to be asked 
is : Why does the Universe with its Concrete phenomena, with 
its flow of life, manifested in finite creations, exist ? Why is there 
a concrete Universe, existing in Time and Space ? 

The inquiry may perhaps be raised, why Organizations once 
constituted do not maintain themselves permanently and without 
change, so that the necessity of new Creations would be obviated. 
But such an hypothesis implies the negation of universal life 
and movement; which would be the equivalent to stagnation and 
petrefaction. 

Returning to our subject ; the Evils we have pointed out, name¬ 
ly, the disorders reigning in the Material and Social worlds, 
are the signs that Humanity is out of Unity with the universe, 
with its Laws of order and harmony ; that it is leading an abnor¬ 
mal life, in violation of those laws, and is suffering the conse¬ 
quences of such violation. The supreme collective wol-k, which 
now lies before Humanity, is to bring itself and its globe into 
unity with the Order of the Universe—into accord with its plan 


n 


and destinies, arid thus become a normal demerit in it. 'To effect 
this great result, it must discover the Laws of cosmical order and 
harmony, and base its social Organism upon them. 

This Organism is composed of the five following branches, orfive 
fundamental Institutions : 

1. Education —the function of which is to develop the Child, 
the germ of man, and prepare it for its future Social Career. 

2. Industry —the instrument through which Humanity creates 
wealth, cultivates and embellishes the Globe, and subdues Nature 
to the reign of mind. 

3. Ethical Institutions — those which regulate the develop¬ 
ment and external action of the Social Sentiments, and the per- ~ 
sonal relations to which they give rise. 

4. Political Institutions —those which regulate the collective 
interests and operations of men as members of the body-politic, 
and their relations to the State. 

5. Religion —which regulates the ideal relations of the finite 
Soul with the universal Soul; of Humanity with the Cosmos. 

Accessory { Science : Knowledge, Direction, Organization. 

Institutions. ( Art : Embellishment, Refinement, Beauty. 

These Institutions, which are the agencies through which the 
psychical Forces act, will, when scientifically organized, establish 
Order and Unity in the five departments which they govern, and 
will direct Humanity in its relations with Nature, with itself, 
and with the Cosmos. 

With the Scientific Organization of Industry, labor will be 
dignified and rendered attractive, so that all mankind will be in¬ 
duced to engage voluntarily in it. Under the Scientific Organiza¬ 
tion of Political Institutions, the political Unity of mankind, and 
universal Association will be established. With these two levers— 
attractive Industry and universal Association—Humanity will be 
able to execute its function of Overseer of the Globe, and elevate 
it to Unity with the Material order of the Universe. 

With the Scientific Organization of ethical Institutions, under 
which a life of social harmony will be established, the psychical 
Forces, especially the sentiments, will be fully developed; and 
with this development, Humanity will bring its Spiritual life 
on earth into Unity with the Moral Order of the Universe. 

As the subject of Unity is one of supreme importance, involving, 
as it does, the whole problem of human destiny, it should be 


22 


diearly understood. In tlie preceding pages we have endeavored 
to show that Humanity and its Globe are out of Unity with the 
Universe. We will now explain wherein this non-Unity or Dis¬ 
unity exists, and point out its precise character, so as to present 
the subject synthetically to the mind of the reader. 

Let us start from the premise that Humanity and the Globe are 
identical in nature and substance with the great Cosmical Whole, 
of which they are a part, and that they are consequently normal 
elements in it. The matter of which our earth is composed is, as 
the revelations of the spectroscope make known, identical in nature 
with that of the other worlds in the Universe. Its hydrogen, for 
example, is the same as that which comes to us in the rays of the 
most distant suns, and its metals are the same as those existing in 
our own sun. The Forces which permeate and move it, such as 
light, heat, gravitation and electricity, are Cosmical. The Laws 
which govern these forces, and underlie and regulate the terrestrial 
phenomena to which they give rise, are in like identity, and neces¬ 
sarily so, for the Laws are but formulas which express {lie unva¬ 
rying modes of action of the Forces. (The Law of Gravitation, for 
instance— Direct as the mass , and inversely as the square,of the distance — 
is but the expression of the mode of action of gravitation.) The 
creations in the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms are presumably 
the same as on all globes ; first, because the same matter and 
forces enter into them, and second, because the laws of organization 
which underlie and determine them, can only emanate from that 
source which determines all organization in creation. As to the 
Unity of the psychical Forces in man with those of the Universe— 
of the finite soul with the universal soul—we have not those direct 
proofs which exist in the other departments named. We must 
therefore resort to indirect proofs, and to two principles which 
serve as guides in the realms of the invisible and the abstract; 
namely, Unity of System, and Analogy. 

Unity of System teaches that there can not be two kinds of 
Spiritual Force—two directing Principles—in the universe no 
more than there can be two kinds of light or electricity. If 
there was duality in Spiritual Force, the Universe would be a 
dualism, giving rise to permanent conflict and disunity. Such, 
it is true, has been the dogma of most religions ; and the infantile 
state of. human reason in dealing with these abstract problems is 
thus exhibited. Analogy teaches that if identity of nature exists 
in the departments above mentioned—in Matter, Forces, Laws and 


Organization—it must exist in this, the central and directing realm, 
for the creation of our Globe would be at once absurd and useless 
if man, the presiding intelligence upon it, was of a radically differ¬ 
ent nature from the Cosmical Intelligence in which the plan and 
order of creation have their origin. The indirect proofs which 
may be offered on this point are negative rather than positive, i. e., 
they explain away the apparent viciousness and falseness which 
now seem inherent in human nature, and which, if real, would 
separate man spiritually from the universe. We have already ex¬ 
plained that under the influence of imperfect or false Social Institu¬ 
tions, the human passions are left undeveloped or are thwarted and 
perverted in their development, producing abnormal effects—the 
discords, vices, and crimes of our civilization. The Senses thus mis- 
developed, engender materialism, coarseness, brutality and sensual 
excesses ; the intellectual Faculties : deceit, duplicity and hypoc- 
ricy ; the sentiments—such as friendship, love ambition, benev¬ 
olence and philanthropy—their opposites, namely, antipathy, 
hatred, revenge, jealousy, malevolence and misanthropy. Any 
force in the soul, which is thwarted and violated in its normal ac¬ 
tion, takes an opposite or inverted direction, and produces effects the 
opposite of its true character. The same is the case with the ma¬ 
terial forces in nature. The Law of direct and inverse , of harmonic and 
discordant action, applies universally. We must consequently dis¬ 
criminate between the development of Forces and their real nature. 

We do not condemn the notes of music because, when evolved 
from an instrument out of tune or falsely played upon, they pro¬ 
duce discords. No more should we blame love and ambition for 
turning to hatred and revenge when thwarted in their natural teden- 
cies and attractions. The more numerous and complex the ele¬ 
ments of any whole, the greater the discord and disorder they 
evolve when falsely acted upon. A hundred instruments falsely 
played upon produce far greater discord than a single instrument. 

In like manner, the very number and complexity of the psychical 
Forces give rise to the extent and variety of existing Socal dis¬ 
cords. These discords offer an inverted image of the Social har¬ 
monies which are to replace them in the future. 

In addition to the Law of dual Development, we will mention ' 
another, governing the action of the psychical Forces, which is of 
special importance in the study of human nature. It is this : 

The Passions tend of their own natural impulse, or spontaneously 
to Good; they only tend to evil when thwarted, disappointed or other-. 


24 


■tdise outraged in their natural attractions and requirements ; they 
then take an abnormal and discordant development. External in¬ 
fluences, violating their nature, must be brought to bear upon them 
to arouse their antagonist and subversive action. 

A. single illustration will explain this Law. Friendship and Am¬ 
bition tend spontaneously to generosity, confidence, devotion and 
honor; it is only when violated and thwarted that they take an 
opposite direction and produce the antitheses of these good man¬ 
ifestations ; namely, distrust, treachery, malignity, and revenge. 
To fix this important Law clearly in the mind, we will formulate 
it thus: The Passions tend spontaneously to Good ; constrainedly to 
Evil. When these two Laws—that of dual Development, and the 
last named—shall be understood and accepted, the ban now resting 
upon human nature will be raised. It will then be seen that Man 
is naturally good ; artificially evil. He is good under social Insti¬ 
tutions which are adapted to the Passions animating him, and 
which allow their natural development. He turns to evil under 
Institutions which are unsuited to those forces, and thwart and 
pervert them. 

These indirect proofs may appear sufficient, but we will adduce 
two of a direct Character in support of the hypothesis of the 
identity of Man’s spiritual nature with that of the Cosmos. First, 
the intellectual Faculties in man reason in conformity with the 
Order of creation and its Laws ; that is, with the mathematics of 
the Universe. To do so, they must be a part of the Universal 
Reason, and identical in nature with it. Second, the Senses 
perceive the attributes of Matter—its forms, colors, flavors, odors, 
weight, density, etc.—as they exist on our earth (or at least as 
they exist for sentient mind, which is the object of their existence); 
and as the Matter of our Globe is the same as that of all globes, 
the Senses of man must be in Unity with those of all sentient 
beings in the Universe who perceive material phenomena. As to 
the Sentiments—the moral element in man—we have indications 
of their goodness in the noble acts they evolve when normally 
developed, but only in the sphere of human action. We do not 
see their relation to, and identity with, the moral element or 
principle in the Universe, as we do in the case of the Intellect and 
the Senses ; but from their unity with the Intellect and their sov- 
reignty over both it and the Senses, as well as from all analogies, 
we may infer that these Sentiments in Humanity are a part of, 
and in identity with the Divine or Cosmical Sentiment. To sum 


up : guided by the indications we possess, we may affirm that the 
spiritual Forces in man, which constitute what is called the soul, 
the spirit, are identical in nature with the same Forces which 
constitute the Universal Soul. 

While, however, this Unity exists, there reign in Nature and 
Society disorders and discords which are wholly at variance and 
in conflict with that order and harmony which, we assume, reign 
in the Universe. These disorders and discords place Humanity 
and the Globe in practical Disunity with the Great Whole ; so 
that, while there exists the pHmary and fundamental Unity we 
have described, there exists Disunity in the actual condition of 
the physical and social worlds. 

The elements which constitute our world are, then, Cosmical; 
but their development, which depends on Humanity, is as yet 
imperfect and false, and in consequence temporarily abnormal 
and discordant. Summing up this two-fold state of things, 
we may state that Humanity and the Globe are : 

In Unity with the Universe in Nature and Essence. 

Out of Unity with it in Development 

Having pointed out the fact of the Disunity in Development of 
Humanity and its Globe with the Cosmos—of our little Microcosm 
with the infinite Macrocosm—and indicated the Causes, we will 
now briefly enumerate, under their appropriate heads, the dis¬ 
orders which exist in Nature and in Society. A comprehensive 
view of these disorders will present a clear idea of the character 
and extent of this Disunity, and suggest the remedy. 

Disorders in Nature. — I. Disorders on the Surface of the Globe 
—on the cuticle of the planet. 1. The great deserts—vast areas 
of verdureless, burning sand, occupying the finest equatorial re¬ 
gions, causing great derangement in the atmospheric system and 
its currents, and seriously affecting the climates of the earth. 
2. Extensive marshes, morasses, and swamps,—the generators of 
various kinds of epidemics. 3. Arid steppes, jungles, and wild 
and unreclaimed forests. 4. Regions which have been devastated 
by the action of man—by the ravages of war and false cultiva¬ 
tion, like the sites of the ancient Chaldean and Assyrian Empires, 
once so fertile, now sand wastes. 5. Treeless regions and moun¬ 
tain ranges stripped of their forests, destroying an important 
source of rainfall, and causing the drying up of streams. C. Un¬ 
drained or badly-drained condition of the soil, giving rise to 
permanent malaria, and occasioning fevers and other diseases. 


26 


II. Disorders in the Climatic System. 1. Sudden and violent fluctua¬ 

tions of temperature. 2. Extremes of heat and cold in their 
respective seasons. 3. Unseasonable frosts. 4. Frequent trans¬ 
position in the order of the seasons—mild winters and cool 
summers. These disorders are caused in part by the conflicting 
influences of the great deserts, and the Arctic ices and snows, 
which latter extend far south of their natural limits, owing to the 
non-cultivation of the northern latitudes. III. Disorders in the At - 
mospheinc System. 1. Tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones. 2. Si¬ 
moons and other poisonous winds. 3. Derangement of the natural 
system of the air currents of the earth, caused by the conflicting 
influences of the deserts and polar ices. IY. Disorders in the Aque¬ 
ous System. 1. Undiked and unregulated water courses. 2. Stag¬ 
nant waters. 3. Floods and drouths. 4. Rainless regions. 5. Ab¬ 
sence of any general system of irrigation. Y. Disorders in the 
Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms. 1. Parasitic vegetable growths. 
2. Yermin. 3. Noxious reptiles. 4. Beasts of prey. 5. Disease¬ 
generating fungi and cells. YI. Disorders in the Magnetic System 
—as yet but little understood. They are the probable cause of 
earthquakes, of sudden and violent storms, and of some varieties 
of the plague and other epidemic diseases. 

Disorders in Society. —I. Antagonism. 1. War of blood. 2. 
Strifes of sects and parties. 3. Hatreds and struggles of castes 
and classes. 4. Anarchical competition in commerce and labor. 
5. Discords and conflicts in personal relations—in the family, in 
marriage and in all spheres of social life. 6. Conflict of the in¬ 
dividual with the collective interest, and sacrifice of the latter to 
the former. II. Oppression. 1. Despotic sway in church and 
state. 2. Arbitrary authority in class and sex relations. 3. Serv¬ 
itude in labor—slavery, serfdom and liirelingism. III. Fraud. 
1. Double-dealing and cheating in the practical affairs of life—in 
commerce and industry. 2. Deceit and duplicity in social re¬ 
lations. 3. Intrigue, class-legislation and monopolies in politics. 
IY. Poverty. 1 . Real and direct—that of the masses with its 
degrading influences. 2. Relative and indirect—that of the 
classes whose means are disproportionate to their social position 
and responsibilities, causing violations of pride and tormenting 
anxieties. Y. Ignorance. 1. Religious superstition. 2. Scientific 
dogmatism and atheism.* 3. Misleading theories of the specu- 


* In the eighteenth century, we saw the reign of a bald, blank Atheism—a denial of 



27 


lative sciences—metaphysics, c conomism, ethics, etc. 4. Blindness 
on social questions, giving rise to stagnant conservatism on the 
part of the upper classes, and to revolutionary outbreaks on the 
part of the masses. YI. Vices and Grimes —effects of the mis¬ 
direction and perversion of the three classes of passional Forces— 
the senses, sentiments, and intellectual faculties. VII. Debility and 
Disease. 1. Physical, caused by uncongenial and unhealthy pur¬ 
suits ; by idleness on the one hand, and excessive toil on the other ; 
by poor living or luxurious indulgence. 2. Moral, caused by violated 
feelings, harassing cares, griefs, and other forms of spiritual depres¬ 
sion. VIII. Individual and isolated action in society , leading to the 
conflict of all interests, and the reign of general incoherence. 

As to the Disorders in Nature, which now appear so far beyond 
the reach of human influence, we do not hesitate to affirm that 
they can be wholly overcome by the proper application of the 
labors and resources of mankind. Certain indications, which may 
be mentioned, warrant this assumption. For instance, the 
Nations of Europe keep permanently under arms three and a half 
millions of men at the cost of thousands of millions annually, and 
for no other purpose than that of destruction. Now, these great 
Military Organizations could, we hold, be transformed into In¬ 
dustrial organizations, for certainly what the genius of man has 
accomplished for the organization of destruction , it can do for that of 
production; and if this were done, the number of men devoted to 
collective works of improvement could be made ten-fold that of 
existing armies, since their labors would be reproductive. Sup¬ 
posing such a policy adopted by all Nations, an idea can be 
formed of the gigantic resources which Humanity would have at 
its disposal in the execution of vast industrial enterprises, such as 
would be necessary in the extirpation of the Material disorders 
described. Even the great desert of Sahara could then be attacked 


the possibility of all cosmical knowledge. In the present century, we see a decided 
tendency on the part of many men of science to establish a like limitation and nega¬ 
tion. Absorbed in the difficult analyses necessary in the Physical Sciences, and feel¬ 
ing the difficulty of solving even those problems which fall under immediate obser¬ 
vation, they reject with impatience, often contempt, the idea of penetrating the 
trackless realms of the universe which lie beyond the pale of observation and 
analysis. They put aside all cosmical problems, affirming that human reason has 
nothing to do with questions like the existence or non-existence of God, of immor¬ 
tality, of a cosmical destiny for man, etc. This is equivalent to a negation, based 
on scientific grounds, of everything beyond the present sphere of reality with its 
material phenomena. 






28 


and conquered ; some parts might be flooded, others planted with 
trees, its drifting sands arrested, rain induced, and gradually its 
wastes reclaimed. And if this greatest of disorders on the earth’s 
surface could be overcome, surely the lesser ones would be easy of 
conquest. In a word, the physical disorders which reign in 
Nature are within the control of man. Under a true social order, 
with attractive Industry and universal Cooperation and Associa¬ 
tion, Humanity would have no difficulty in bringing its Globe 
into Unity in its Development with the economy and harmony of 
the Universe. 

As to the disorders which prevail in the Social world, and pro¬ 
duce so much misery, they are the effect of the imperfect and 
false Organization of the Institutions under which men live, and 
by which their destinies are controlled. It is the false Organiza¬ 
tion of Industry which engenders poverty with its brood of 
collateral evils—not barrenness in Nature or incapacity in Man. 
It is to the false organization of the Ethical Institutions, which 
misdirect and pervert the Sentiments, that is to be attributed the 
moral discords that exist in Society; not to any viciousness 
inherent in the sentiments themselves. It is the false organization 
of Political Institutions, combined with the conditions which the 
poverty and ignorance of the masses impose, that is the source of 
tyranny and oppression. 

We might thus pass in review each of the five great Institutions 
of the social organism, and show that all the disorders and evils of 
society are due to their imperfect or false Organization ; but the 
examples given will answer our purpose. 

The question now arises : Has Humanity the capacity to organ¬ 
ize Social Institutions scientifically, so as to eradicate the disorders 
of which we speak ? There is already evidence of its capacity in 
social creation in the fact that it has risen from the savage state, 
in which it was without the elements of society, and with no experi. 
ence in social organization, to that in which we find it at present 
in our modern Civilization. It began naked and ignorant, having 
neither industry, art, science nor social institutions. Now it has 
these elements all well advanced in their elaboration, while 
numerous experiments in social organization (the Egyptian, 
Chaldeo-Assyrian, Medo-Persian, Greek, Iioman, and Catliolico 
Feudal) have been made, and discipline in social life has been 
acquired. The great progress thus far achieved is unquestionable 
proof of organizing Capacity, and a sure guarantee of still greater 


29 


progress to be accomplished in the future—the guarantee that 
Humanity is to arrive at the completion of the great work on 
which it has so long been engaged, i.e ., the discovery of the 
normal Organization of Society, and the attainment of its social 
Destiny. 

A general idea can now be formed on the subject of the Dis¬ 
unity reigning on our globe, and of its causes. 

What, let us ask, is the remedy ? It is, as has been stated, the 
discovery and establishment of the normal Order of society— 
an Order adapted to the forces of the Soul, and capable of direct¬ 
ing Humanity in the accomplishment of its industrial and social 
Destinies. This Order rests on no uncertain or arbitrary basis. 
It has for its foundation the Laws of Organization in creation— 
the Laws which underlie and determine the plan and harmony of 
the Cosmps. 

These Laws, employed as a guide in the creation of a theory of 
social Organization, will furnish the basis of an exact social 
Science, or Sociology. Such a science is absolutely necessary in 
the complex work of social Organization ; for in this sphere, as in 
every other of a constructive character, the mind requires a theory 
or plan, serving as the ideal model of what it has to realize in 
practice. Without it, statesmen, legislators and other social lead¬ 
ers, who attempt to regulate the course of society and to improve 
it, are operating blindly and at random. 

A vague opinion prevails among men that society is moving 
onward to its appointed state by what is variously termed the 
“force of circumstances,” “the instinct of the race,” “the 
general law of progress,” “ Divine guidance.” These loose 
opinions are speculative fancies, adopted in the absence of real 
knowledge; whereas the fact is, that society can only reach its 
true state by the conscious and calculated efforts of human rea¬ 
son under the direction of an exact social Science. Men act 
on this principle when they undertake to organize any part of the 
social system. When, from necessity, they are forced to frame 
political institutions and organize governments, as they often are 
after revolutions, they do so by conscious calculation and reason¬ 
ing. True, being without a scientific guide, their institutions are 
imperfect and arbitrary ; yet these efforts show that man recog¬ 
nizes the necessity of calculation and thought in one branch, at 
least, of the social organism. He knows, that to have a government, 


BO 


he must think, plan and devise; but he does not know that the 
other branches of the social organism are subject to the same con¬ 
ditions, and can only be normally constituted by the exercise of 
conscious reason, guided by scientific principles. Construction and 
organization—the same in principle in all departments of creation 
—can only be the work of mind, conscious of its operations, plan¬ 
ning with forethought, analyzing, comparing and combining, 
adapting means to ends, and calculating llie relations of cause and 
effect. Instinct cannot organize ; Divine Providence does not 
interfere to do the work of Reason ; no science is revealed to 
man; no constructions or other material aids are furnished him 
by nature. 

When the human Mind shall rise to the conception of the possi¬ 
bility of a scientific Organization of society, it will at once under¬ 
take, as the work of paramount importance, the elaboration of an 
exact social Science. Fifst, however, the Laws on which the 
Science is to be based must be discovered and combined into a 
system that will enable the mind clearly to comprehend and apply 
them. 

But the thinkers of our age, even the most synthetic, seem not 
to clearly comprehend the existence of a system of universal and 
unitary Laws, underlying and regulating the infinitely varied 
phenomena of the Universe, and determining the plan and order 
that reign therein. As a consequence, no regular search for 
these laws is instituted ; in proof of which we will cite the views 
entertained on the subject by some of the leading thinkers of re¬ 
cent times. 

Auguste Comte, undertaking to frame an integral scientific 
synthesis, propounded, as the Law of Progress and Evolution, that 
of the three Stages, which he explains as follows : 

“From the study of the development of human intelligence, in 
all directions and through all times, the discovery arises of a great 
fundamental law to which it is necessarily subject, and which has 
a solid foundation of proof, both in the facts of our organization, 
and in our historical experience. The Law is this : that each of our 
leading conceptions—each branch of our knowledge—passes suc¬ 
cessively through three different theoretical conditions : the Theo¬ 
logical or fictitious ; the Metaphysical or abstract; and the Scien¬ 
tific or positive. In other words, the human mind, by its nature, 
employs in its progress three methods of philosophizing, the char¬ 
acters of which are essentially different,and even radically opposed, 


31 


viz : the theological method, the metaphysical, and the positive. 
Hence arise three philosophies, or systems of conceptions, on the 
aggregate of phenomena, each of which excludes the others. 
The first is the point of departure of the human mind ; and the 
third is its definite state. The second is merely a state of transi¬ 
tion.” 

He used this formula as his guide in studying Evolution in all 
departments. He applied it alike to the development of the 
individual and collective mind, of the sciences, of history, and to 
the constitution of society. Now, in attempting to explain, by 
this law of the three Stages, such a diversity of effects, he was far 
from the comprehension of a system of universal laws. 

Furthermore, in proof of the limitation of his views on the sub¬ 
ject, the law of the three Stages is really not that of Evolution, 
but of three states of the human mind , i.e., three modes of its activity ; 
namely, that of sentiment, of reflection, and of observation. Then, 
again, the terms Theological, Metaphysical and Positive desig¬ 
nate them incorrectly. The first state, answering to the Theologi¬ 
cal, would be more correctly designated as the Emotional and 
Peligious. It is the state in which the Emotions or Sentiments 
act preponderantly, and subordinate Reason, using it as their 
instrument and agent. This state, when predominant in races, 
evolves religions, and, controlling the mind by awe, gives rise to 
simple or blind Faith. The second state may be designated the 
Speculative and Philosophical. It is the state in which Reason, 
emancipated from the dominion of the Emotions, and hence of 
simple Faith, speculates and theorizes with freedom on the nature 
of the universe, on first causes, and evolves systems of speculative 
Philosophy and metaphysical Theories. The third state is the 
Observational and Experimental. It is that in which the mind 
uses the Senses to observe material facts and their relations, and 
with their aid experiments and reasons upon them. Guided by the 
reliable data thus furnished, it creates one branch of the sciences 
—the Physical. These sciences are termed positive or exact, 
because their conclusions are susceptible of practical verification. 
Each of these states has predominated at certain epochs in the 
intellectual development of mankind, producing, so to speak, an 
intellectual atmosphere , which the individual mind has inhaled, and 
by which it is governed in its beliefs and opinions. The Emotional 
and Religious state was wholly preponderant in the earlier Civili¬ 
zations—the Egyptian, Chaldeo-Assyrian, Jewish and others ; that 


32 


is, through all antiquity, prior to the rise of the Greek Civiliza¬ 
tion. In Greece, human Reason emancipated itself for the first 
time in history from the absolute dominion of the Emotions— 
Thought from Faith, Philosophy from Religion. Intellectual 
liberty was achieved by the genius of that race ; and the human 
mind, speculating with newly-awakened curiosity on the nature 
and causes of things, created the Philosophies which are still the 
admiration of the world. It could not create other than specula¬ 
tive theories, being without the two guides necessary for its 
direction and equilibrium : first, Observation and Experiment; 
second, Laws. In the modern age, dating from the Reformation, 
the Observational and Experimental State (the third in historical 
development) has risen, and is obtaining a dominant influence. 
Exact science is taking the place of theology and speculative 
philosophy. The thinkers of influence of our age are neither the¬ 
ologians nor philosophers; but men engaged in the positive sci¬ 
ences. 

The three states—the Emotional, the Speculative ar.d the Ob¬ 
servational—exist to-day contemporaneously, each governing a 
certain portion of society : the first, the religious world ; the sec¬ 
ond, a minority of speculative minds; the third, a minority of 
exact observers and investigators. These last, though few in 
number, wield the real intellectual power of society. It is this 
simultaneous existence of the three states which gives rise to the 
differences and conflicts of doctrines and opinions, and to the in¬ 
tellectual antagonisms and incoherence which now reign. An¬ 
other and higher intellectual state is yet to come, based, not on 
emotion, speculation and observation alone, but on the Laws of 
Cosmical Order and Harmony, discovered, systematized and em¬ 
bodied in a science ; from which Laws, human Reason will deduce 
in all departments of creat on, as it now deduces from the law of 
gravitation in astronomy. 

If this analysis is correct, it follows that Comte neither con¬ 
ceived the existence of an integral system of Laws, including 
those of Evolution and Organization, nor comprehended the real 
nature of the three stages which he used as his guide. As proof 
of this, when he undertook to frame his “positive state of 
society,” he was, as we stated in a note, without the laws of 
organization, and was obliged to resort to the principle of historical 
Deduction. Guided by this principle he merely clothed in new 
forms the Catholico-Feudal institutions of the middle ages. Noav, 


83 


as the normal social Organism of the future—the compound- 
organic—is to differ from the transitional societies of the past and 
present—the formative or embryonic—as much as the grown man 
differs from the embryo, we can judge how wide of the mark was 
Comte, in presenting, as the normal state of Society, a mere pro¬ 
longation of the incomplete and transitional past. We dwell 
thus in detail upon Comte, because he is ranked by advanced 
minds—by John Stuart Mill, Lewes, Littre, and others—as one of 
the greatest thinkers of modern times ; so that what we say of 
his position in relation to Laws applies to them. Leaving aside 
his sociology, lie is considered “a representative man” of the 
scientific spirit of our age—an indication that the age itself is 
without the conception of the existence of an integral system of 
Laws, governing unitarily all phenomena. 

Herbert Spencer is engaged on a scientific synthesis, which 
claims to be as comprehensive as Comte’s. He uses as his guide 
the Law of Evolution, applying it as universally as did Comte his 
three Stages. This Law, as now understood and as used by Mr. 
Spencer, is incomplete. It is Evolution in its undeveloped or 
embryonic state ; a mere shell of the great Law underlying all 
finite development. The following quotation from Mr. Spencer 
will show his conception of the Law : 

“This Law of organic progress is the Law of all progress, 
Whether it be in the development of the earth, in the development 
of Life upon its surface, in the development of Society, of Govern¬ 
ment, of Manufactures, of Commerce, of Language, Literature, 
Science, Art, this same evolution of the simple into the complex, 
through successive differentiations, holds throughout. From the 
earliest traceable cosmical changes, down to the latest results of 
Civilization, we shall find that the transformation of the homo¬ 
geneous into the heterogeneous is that in which Progress essen¬ 
tially consists. ” This definition of evolution, as we shall show here¬ 
after, is very incomplete ; but even were it complete, the exclusive 
use which Mr. Spencer makes of this one law is evidence, we 
think, that he has not grasped the great system of Laws of Cosmi¬ 
cal Order, of which evolution is but one. To him, however, is 
due the credit of having perceived the existence of Unity of Law 
in the Universe, and of applying the law mentioned, which has 
hitherto been limited to material creations, to the moral and 
social worlds. It is a significant departure, and will lead to a simi- 
ar generalization of other laws. 


84 


In the field of the natural and physical sciences, Darwin, Hux¬ 
ley, Tyndall and others use the Law of Evolution in its present 
imperfect state, together with certain isolated laws of classifica¬ 
tion and organization in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, 
which have been empirically discovered ; thus showing that they 
too are far from the search of a unitary system of Laws of organi¬ 
zation and order in creation. 

We have here, we think, sufficient evidence to warrant us in the 
conclusion, that the idea of a synthesis of Laws, underlying the 
order and harmony of the Universe, is not yet comprehended. 
Fourier did conceive of its existence ; but having in view a 
special aim, namely, the elaboration of a social Organism, he 
treats of those laws only which serve his purpose. His object was 
not the elaboration of the integral system of Laws, and their re¬ 
duction to a science; but to obtain those, requisite as guides in 
social organization. Consequently, while explaining those he used 
in his construction, he does not give a complete theory of cos- 
mical Laws. 

The Laws of the Universe, constituting one body of Laws, are 
divisible into two great classes : 

First Class. The Laics which govern the Forces in the material 
world, and regulate their modes of action on matter. They are the 
Laws of cosmical Dynamics in association with Statics. 

Second Class. The Laws of organization in creation —the Laws 
which underlie and determine the Order, Harmony and Unity 
that reign in the cosmos. 

The first class is composed of Orders, the number of which is 
determined by the number of different Forces in Nature. Gravi¬ 
tation, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, chemical affinity and 
the nervous force are those now known ; others remain to be 
discovered and their laws or modes of action ascertained. The 
Laws governing forces are, as has been stated, formulas which 
express their regular and permanent modes of action. The force of 
gravitation, for example, in moving matter, acts upon it “Directly 
as the mass, and inversely as the square of the distance;”—a 
formula, it is evident, which simply expresses the Mode of action of 
that force. The law of gravitation is the only one which has been 
discovered and clearly formulated, so as to be rendered practically 
available in the study of the phenomena of its realm. Some of 
the laws of light, heat and chemical affinity have been ascertained, 
but not with a completeness sufficient to interpret fully the 


35 


phenomena in tlieir departments. Data are accumulating in re¬ 
gard to the other known forces, but the laws are still undiscovered 
Thus the first class of Laws—those which govern the dynamics of 
creation—are, as yet, but fragmentarily understood ; and hence, 
of the phenomena of the material Universe no exact and systematic 
knowledge is possessed. 

In the following table we present those Laws of the First Class 
which govern the Forces in nature now known. It is evident 
that the list cannot be made complete until all the Forces are 
discovered, and their modes of action analyzed and determined. 
But, although incomplete, this table will serve to bring the sub¬ 
ject clearly before the mind of the reader. 

First Class : The Laws Governing the Forces in Nature. 

1. The Law of Gravitation, governing the movements of matter 
in the mass. 

2. The Law of Chemical Affinity, governing combinations of 
molecular matter. 

3. The Law of Light, governing the luminiferous force. 

4. The Law of Heat, governing the calorific force. 

5. The Law of Sound, governing atmospheric vibrations. 

6. The Law of the Electric and Magnetic forces. 

7. The Law of the Nervous or Biological force, governing the 
movements of organized matter. 

We now pass to the consideration of the Laws of the second 
Class. They are those which underlie and govern the processes, 
operations, conditions, relations, and other phenomena of Organ¬ 
ization in all departments of creation—Organization being the 
source of Order and Harmony in all spheres. 

The Laws of this Class may also be defined as those of Cosmic 
Order and Harmony. They are the Laws of number, distribu¬ 
tion, classification, coordination, combination, pivots, transi¬ 
tions, ascending and descending vibrations, etc. 

As the Laws of the first Class form a whole, governing the 
phenomena of the inorganic world, so the Laws of the second 
Class form a whole, governing the phenomena of the organic 
world. 

We shall undertake to explain but one of the Laws of this class, 
and that very briefly, since it is a subject which, if fully treated, 
would require a volume. This Law is that of Evolution, as it is 
now designated,—the Law governing what is variously termed in 


36 


different departments of creation : formation, growth, elaboration, 
construction, organization. A continent is formed, a plant is 
grown, a science is elaborated, an edifice is constructed, an 
embryo is organized. This Law underlies the phenomena attend¬ 
ant on evolution in all these departments. It has already been 
alluded to in preceding pages ; we will now speak of it more 
in detail. 

This Law is a complex whole, composed of primary and second¬ 
ary Laws. Its primary division is into three Laws, which govern 
the three great Stages through which all finite things pass in their 
careers. We here present the Law in its primary division : 

The Law of Evolution with its Three Primary Laws. 


First 
Primary - 
Law, 


—that governing the processes, ope¬ 
rations, conditions, relations and 
other phenomena attendant upon the 
first Stage of Evolution ; the stage 
during which the new Thing is 
evolved, formed, elaborated or orga¬ 
nized. It is the Law of Formative or 
Embryonic development. 


GENERAL 


LAW 

OF 

EVOLUTION. 


Second 


—that governing the phenomena 
of the second Stage of Evolution ; 
the stage during which the new Thing 


Primary i is prepared for the third or fully 


Law, 


developed stage. It is the Law of 
what we term Simple-Organic devel¬ 
opment. 


Third 

Primary 

Law, 


—that governing the phenomena of 
the third Stage in the career of the 
finite Thing ; the stage of complete 
development and preparation. It is 
the Law of what we term Compound- 
Organic development. 


These three primary Laws are in turn divisible into sub-Laws, 
forming the secondary Laws of the general Law. 

It is these last which must be understood in order to form a 








37 


clear conception of the practical operation of the Law of Evolu¬ 
tion. A comparison will explain our meaning. We can have 
but an imperfect idea of color, if we see white only and the 
three primary colors. We must see all the colors of the prism 
and their combinations, before we can form a perfect idea of 
what color is. So also but an imperfect idea of Evolution can be 
obtained, if it is simply described as “ the advance from the ho¬ 
mogeneous to the heterogeneous, accompanied by differentiation,” 
etc. It is necessary, for instance, to understand that at the initial 
point of the “ advance,” there is the Law governing organic 
Germs and the processes attendant upon their transformation into 
the organisms to which they give rise ; and also the Law gov¬ 
erning Cell-multiplication and their distribution into tissues and 
organs. 

The Law of Evolution is exhibited in all the works of Nature 
around us and in those of man. There it is that it must first be 
studied, as there Observation can aid Reason in its investigations. 
When discovered and verified in these concrete spheres, it can be 
applied to those of an abstract and universal character—to 
spheres in which Laws alone are the guide. The Law of Gravita¬ 
tion, thus discovered, has served as interpreter in the solution 
of the most intricate and abstruse problems ; as, for example, the 
explanation of the precession of the equinoxes, and the discovery 
of an invisible planet. 

As a preliminary to the explanation of the Law in question, we 
will examine it in its manifestation in the concrete. We will 
describe the Stages through which all finite things pass in their 
evolution, and the phenomena accompanying them. Under the 
phenomena lie the Laws ; as, for example, under the phenomena of 
the planetary movements lies the Law of Gravitation. Through 
the former, the effect, the latter, the cause, is interpreted. 

In the careers of all finite things or creations, we find three 
distinct Stages of Evolution, each of which is accompanied by a 
class of phenomena special to it. 

Under the phenomena of these three stages, and governing 
them, lie the three primary Laws contained in the table. 

In the first Stage of Evolution, the new thing is formed, 
i.e. evolved, elaborated or organized, as the case may be. As it 
cannot spring at once from the germ into the fully-developed 
organism, it must necessarily pass through a process of Formation, 
which process is accompanied by certain operations, conditions, 


88 


and other phenomena. These phenomena must he carefully an¬ 
alyzed and classed in groups. Under each lies a Law, and the 
Laws underlying all the groups constitute the sub-laws of the 
first primary Law. 

A few illustrations will explain the mode of analyzing and 
classifying these groups of phenomena, a comprehension of which 
phenomena is the preparatory step in the discovery of the Laws. 

1. Every creation has its origin in an organic or organizing 
Germ ; the plant in a seed, the animal in an egg or ovum, a 
work of man in an idea or plan. The processes of transformation 
of the germ into the rudiments of the new organization to which 
it is to give rise, are marked by a group of varied and complex 
phenomena. Under these phenomena lies the Law which governs 
them, and which is revealed through them. We define it as, The 
Law governing the Evolution of » Organic Germs. It forms the first 
sub-Law of the <?lass governing the Formative or Embryonic 
stage. 

2. Following the evolution of the germ, comes the process of 
Cell-multiplication, together with the distribution of the cells into 
groups, the groups into series, and the series into tissues and 
organs. These processes form a second group of phenomena, 
under which lies the governing Law— The Law of Cell-multiplica¬ 
tion and distribution. 

3. During the Formative Stage of evolution, the Static Princi¬ 
ple predominates over the Dynamic, Matter over Mind. This 
inverted relation gives rise to a class of phenomena forming a 
third group, underlying which is the Law regulating the relation 
of the two principles. This we define as, The Law governing the 
preponderance of the Static or Ma terial Principle. 

This analysis and grouping of phenomena is the first step to be 
taken in ascertaining the subordinate Laws of each primary Law. 
The method, fully stated, consists in the following operations : 

1. Decomposition of the Stage into its sub-stages (germ-evolution 
and cell-multiplication are sub-stages of the Formative stage). 

2. Analysis of the phenomena of the sub-stages, and their classi¬ 
fication in groups with a view to ascertain their nature and mean¬ 
ing, their modes of manifestation, and other characteristics. 

3. Determination, guided by the above data, of the Modes of Action of 
the Forces generating the phenomena ( e.g ., Newton determined, 
by the study of the phenomena of the moon’s movements, the 
mode of action of the gravitating force which produces them). 


30 


4. The framing of Formulas which shall express in a clear and 
comprehensive manner the Modes of Action of the Forces ( e.g ., 
the formula, “Directly as the mass and inversely as the square 
of the distance,” expresses the mode of action of gravity). 

5. Generalization of the Formulas, and their reduction to fixed 
Laws. 

When these five processes are accomplished, and the Laws as¬ 
certained, there must he associated with them a Method of Applica¬ 
tion, which will enable the mind to use them as Criterions of 
Deduction in all spheres, especially in those of a complex and 
abstract character, impenetrable to unaided reason. 

The remarks we have made on the first Stage of Evolution 
apply equally to the other two Stages, of which we will speak 
briefly. 

In the second Stage of Evolution, the new Thing which has 
been formed, elaborated, or organized in the first Stage, is prepared 
for the third by what is called, in different departments, training, 
drilling, educating, dressing, adjusting, putting in working or 
running order, etc. The animal is trained ; man is educated ; the 
fruit tree is dressed (pruned, grafted); the machine is put in run¬ 
ning order. Underlying and governing the processes and other 
phenomena of this Stage is the second primary Law, which we 
have designated as the Simple-Organic. In this Stage, the 
organization is completed, but is not prepared by the processes 
mentioned for the fulfillment of its purpose or function. Conse¬ 
quently, it is in an incomplete, inoperative state of action, which we 
define as Simple, in order to distinguish it from that of the organized 
and fully-prepared state, which is Compound. The infant, at birth, 
is organized, but incapable of independent, creative action ; the 
grown man, trained and educated, is capable of such action. We 
distinguish these two states as those of Simple and of Compound 
action. 

This second Stage, like the first, is composed of sub-stages, the 
phenomena of which, when analytically studied and their charac¬ 
teristics determined, must be classed in groups, preparatory to the 
discovery of the Laws underlying them ; winch Laws constitute 
the sub-laws of the second primary Law. This Stage being a 
transition between the first and third, the Laws governing it par¬ 
take of the character of each. 

The infantile stage in man, for example, is a transition between 
the embryonic and the fully-developed, and the Laws governing 


40 


tlie phenomena of this intermediate Stage are partly Embryonic 
and partly Compound-Organic. There are a few independent 
Laws belonging to it, but we omit their explanation in this 
sketch. 

In the third Stage, the organism which has been formed in 
the first and prepared in the second, enters the fully-developed 
and normal state, that to which it is destined, in which it per¬ 
forms its function, purpose or use, and which is for it the 
relatively perfect and permanent condition. In the human sphere, 
it is the state of manhood, which the individual enters after pass¬ 
ing through the Embryonic and Simple-Organic stages, i.e., after 
being organized in the womb, and developed and trained in child¬ 
hood and youth. 

Underlying and governing this Stage is the third primary Law 
—the Compound-Organic ; which Stage, like the two preceding, 
is composed of sub-stages, the phenomena of which, analyzed and 
defined and classed in groups, reveal the Laws underlying them 
—the sub-laws of the third great primary Law. 

Having taken this general view of the three Stages, we will 
observe the relation which they hold to one another, and their 
place and function in a career. The first two Stages are initial 
and transitional, preparing the way for the third, which is the 
true and ultimate stage to be attained. They are consequently 
secondary to it, temporary in their nature, non-essential in them¬ 
selves, and of comparatively short duration ; the period of ges¬ 
tation and childhood is short in comparison with that of man¬ 
hood. 

Incomplete Organization characterizes the two transitional 
stages; complete Organization the third. As these two states 
are opposite in principle, the effects they produce must likewise 
be opposite. In the first we find, under modified forms and in 
different degrees of intensity :—incompleteness, imperfection, dis¬ 
proportion, want of balance, ugliness, deformity, monstrosity, 
reign of materialism, reign of darkness, passivity, dependence, an¬ 
tagonism, conflict, disruption, partial destructions, inversion, 
incoherence, disorder and discord. In the second, we find com¬ 
pleteness, relative perfection, proportion, balance, equilibrium, 
beauty, symmetry, preponderance of the dynamic principle, reign 
of light, creative action, independent and self-sustaining existence, 
concert, cooperation, unity, order, harmony, and the fulfillment 
of destinies. These phenomena, classed in two great groups, con- 


41 


stitute the one the Reign of Evil; the other the Reign of Good. A 
clear conception of the simple fact, that opposite phenomena ac¬ 
company opposite states of Organization, would solve the long- 
controverted problem of Good and Evil, which has perplexed the 
human mind from the very dawn of reflection. 

We may observe, in this connection, that if the social Organism 
under which Humanity has lived up to the present time is still in 
the formative stage of evolution, (the different systems of society 
which have been established being the sub-stages), an explanation 
is at once offered of the cause of the evils which have reigned in 
the social world. 

These brief explanations suffice to give a general idea of the 
mode of determining the existence and general character of Laws 
through the study of phenomena. 

The following Tables present an analysis of the subordinate 
Laws of the three primary Laws in such formulas as we deem 
most comprehensive. The analysis is unavoidably incomplete, 
and the formulas arbitrary, but they will serve as models on 
which to build. The subject is so new, so involved and complex, 
that much future labor will be required to effect a complete 
analysis, and to frame a body of exact formulas. 

SUBORDINATE LAWS OF THE FIRST PRIMARY LAW. 

1. The Law governing Organic Germs in the various departments 

of creation ; the modes of their generation ; their constitu¬ 
tion and variety, and the processes of their development. 

2. The Law governing Cell-multiplication, and that of other prim¬ 

ary elements ; their distribution into groups, the groups into 
series, the series into the rudiments of organs. 

3. The Law of Disproportion, governing forms and their relations 

in the formative stage.—Theory of Embryonic Geometry. 

4. The Law of Preponderance of the Static principle over the 

Dynamic, of Matter over Mind, governing the relations of 
these two principles in the formative stage.—Reign of Matter. 

5. The Law of Simple Action, governing the non-functional and 

transitional action of Forces in the formative stage. 

6. The Law governing states and conditions of existence in the 

embryonic stage, such as those of Separation, Isolation, reign 
of Darkness. 

7. The Law governing the Processes of development in embry- 


42 


onic life, which are marked by disorder and disturbances, by 
disruptions, partial destructions and reconstructions. 

8. The Law governing Disunity in the relations of parts in embry¬ 
onic organisms ; characteristics of which are dissonance, an¬ 
tagonism, constraint, conflict and violence. 

SUBORDINATE LAWS OP THE SECOND PRIMARY LAW. 

This second Stage of Evolution, being intermediate between the 
first and the third, participates in the character of both, and is 
subject to the Laws of each, modified and tempered by the mixed 
character of the Stage. We will not here speak of the special 
Laws which govern this Stage. 

SUBORDINATE LAWS OF THE THIRD PRIMARY LAW. 

1. The Law governing the Place and Functions of finite creations 

in the cosmic whole.—Theory of the Hierarchy of functions. 

2. The Law governing the distribution, classification and coordina¬ 

tion of completed organisms in the general system to which 
they belong. 

3. The Law of Proportion, governing forms and their relations 

in the Compound-Organic stage.—Theory of Harmonic Geom¬ 
etry. 

4. The Law of Preponderance of the Dynamic principle over the 

Static, of Mind over Matter, governing the relations of these 
two principles in the Compound-Organic stage.—Reign of 
Mind. 

5. The Law of Compound Action, governing the functional and 

normal action of Forces in the Compound-Organic stage. 

6. The Law governing states and conditions of existence in the 

Compound-Organic stage, such as those of Combination, As¬ 
sociation, Collectivity, reign of Light. 

7. The Law governing the balanced, equilibrated and harmonic 

action of completed organisms. 

8. The Law governing Unity in the relations of parts in completed 

organisms, characteristics of which are accord, concert, at¬ 
traction, liberty. 

This list of Laws is, we repeat, very incomplete, and the form¬ 
ulas in which they are expressed are obscure. A few practical 
applications, in familiar spheres, may help to render them more 
intelligible to the mind of the reader : 


43 


1. The Law governing Organic Germs. The nature and constitu¬ 
tion of organic Germs and the process of their transformation are 
being studied by men of science ; but their phenomena are not as 
yet fully analyzed and classified, and the laws underlying them 
discovered. When the Law is understood, it will furnish a Cri¬ 
terion of Deduction in many abstract realms. It will demon¬ 
strate that, in addition to the inorganic molecules now recognized 
in nature,‘there exist organic molecules which lie at the basis of all 
finite organisms. It will also settle the question of spontaneous 
generation, and, we think, furnish the key to the solution of 
abstruse problems, like the Nebular theory. We venture the 
hypothesis that the Law will demonstrate that the planetary bodies 
(organisms of a highly complex character) have their origin in 
organic germs, like the creations in nature around us ; and that 
these germs, which may be called planetary ovums, are deposited 
in the nebulous matter, which they absorb or aggregate, as does 
the germ in the egg of the bird. The idea that complex organ¬ 
isms, like the planetary, can be the product of the interaction of 
forces and matter, blind and unconscious, is in contradiction 
to a Law of nature which now appears universal in its application. 

2. The opposite Law in the Compound-Organic stage is not 
discovered. It is the Law governing the glace and f unctions of finite 
crecitiorvs in the universe ;-— Theory of the Hierarchy of functions. W hen 
discovered, it will reveal the existence of a cosmic Classification 
and Hierarchy in which every finite thing, from the animalcule to 
Humanity, and from Humanity to the higher organisms, fills a 
place and accomplishes a purpose in the economy of the great 
whole. It will be one of the guides in determining the place of 
Man in nature, and his destiny on the earth. 

3. The Law governing the Multiplication of Cells and other primary 
elements , and their distribution and arrangement in the organized 
wholes to which they belong. This Law, when discovered, will 
explain the various modes in which the primary elements that 
enter into and form new organizations are multiplied, the divers 
plans on which they are distributed and combined in the same, and 
the processes accompanying these operations. This Law, now 
studied in cell-multiplication and distribution in the vegetable and 
animal kingdoms, is universal in its application. It governs 
equally the multiplication of observations and ideas, and their 
coordination in the creation of a science ; of building materials 
and their combination in the construction of an edifice ; and of 


44 


the elements of society, and their adjustment in a social organism. 
The organic processes accompanying these complex operations 
form the initial stage of development, which, in the current theory 
of evolution, is vaguely designated as “the"advance from the 
homogeneous to the heterogeneous, accompanied by differentia¬ 
tion”—a definition which merely states the fact of the succession of 
the phenomena, but explains nothing of the complex processes 
connected with the advance. 

The opposite Law in the Compound-Organic stage is too abstruse 
to be treated in a single paragraph; we therefore omit it. 

4. The Law governing Disproportion of parts as regards form and 
size in embryonic organizations. This Law is illustrated in animal 
Embryology by disproportioned, exaggerated and misshapen 
forms, by ugliness and even monstrosity, especially during the 
earlier portion of the stage. In the Globe, during the geological 
ages, by rudely defined and desolate continents, great climatic 
excesses, uncouth and monstrous forms in the animal creations, 
like the great saurians of the reptilian age, a carbon-charged 
atmosphere, and other disproportioned conditions. In Reli¬ 
gion, still in the embryonic stage like the other branches of 
the social organism, by monstrous doctrines of demons and hells 
of endless torments, of Divine wrath and the curse, of human 
depravity, of atonement by sacrifices ; by crude and speculative 
ideas of God and providence, and by the subjugation of reason to 
faith. In Government, by despotism and spoliation, by war with 
its ravages, by class monopolies and privileges, party conflicts and 
corruptions, incoherent, arbitrary and speculative legislation, and 
other abnormal features. In Science, by crude observations, 
speculations, guesses, false inferences, and wild theories. In all 
these departments there reigns Unity of System. Under the multi¬ 
plicity of phenomena there lies Unity of Law. An Ironclad, with 
its tiers of bristling cannon, and its ram, a giant tusk, at the bow, 
is in the creations of man the analogue of some monster like the 
Ichthyosaurus in the geological creations of the globe. Despot¬ 
isms in government and doctrines of Divine wrath and eternal 
punishment in religion have also their analogues in the monstrous 
creations of the geological ages. 

5. The opposite Law in the Compound-Organic stage— that govern¬ 
ing the Proportion of parts , and the relations of form and size in com¬ 
pleted organisms , will, when discovered, explain the balance, sym¬ 
metry, beauty and harmony that reign in this stage. It is illus- 


45 


trated in man, normally developed, by the harmonious Proportions 
and the beauty of Form of the body. In the finished edifice, by the 
balance and symmetry of its parts. In our globe (which, it must 
be borne in mind, is still in the simple-organic stage of its 
evolution), by its clearly-defined continents covered with ver¬ 
dure, the comparative degree of order that reigns in its cli¬ 
mates and atmospheric system—replacing the great excesses of 
the geological periods—and the beauty of most of its flora and 
fauna. Nevertheless, embryonic features still linger in its des¬ 
erts, marshes, malarial regions, tempests, earthquakes, beasts of 
prey, and noxious reptiles. 

6. The Laid governing the Preponderance of the Static Principle over 
the Dynamic , of Matter over Mind in the Embryonic Stage. This Law, 
when discovered, will explain the phenomena arising from the 
inverted relations of the two principles. The static properties of 
matter in their resistance to Force impose upon the latter the 
necessity of subordinating its action, while moulding and fashion¬ 
ing the former, to the requirements of those static properties. 
During this transitional process, Force cannot exercise in a com¬ 
plete and normal manner its modes of action. We will illustrate 
this subordination of Dynamics to Statics first in man. During 
the embryonic and infantile stages of development, the dynamic 
principle — the system of biological forces — does not control 
the body and use it as its instrument. On the contrary, being 
engaged in organizing and training its instrument, it is subordin¬ 
ated to the material conditions which that process imposes upon 
it. In our unorganized, embryonic Societies, the same subordina¬ 
tion of the dynamic or spiritual principle pervades every depart¬ 
ment. In Industry, the masses are forced to toil from want or 
the fear of it,£e., from material motives—sign of the Preponderance 
of the Material principle. In Government, the Laws are obeyed, 
and public Order upheld from fear of the prison and scaffold 
—Preponderance of the Material principle. In Religion, the 
dread of hell, the uncertainty of the future, is, with the major¬ 
ity, the secret impulse that carries them into the church—Prepon¬ 
derance again of the Material principle. In the Sciences, the 
Physical only are developed to any extent, and they empirically 
(with the exception of astronomy), being based on observation and 
experiment alone, instead of upon Law r s. The abstract and higher 
sciences, in which observation and experiment are not available, 
are wholly undeveloped. Finally, in the most general sphere of 


46 


human relations, that of Man with Nature, the former, represent¬ 
ing the Dynamic or Spiritual principle, is subordinated to the 
latter, representing the Static or Material principle. Man, in our 
embryonic societies, without the power of subduing Nature to 
the reign of Mind, is subjected in his health and industry to the 
crude conditions that reign in her domain. He is her slave 
instead of her master. This universal preponderance of the Mate¬ 
rial principle over the Spiritual is an unmistakable sign that the 
social Organism is in the Formative Stage of its evolution. 

7. The opposite Law in the Compound-Organic stage, that govern¬ 
ing the Preponderance of the Dynamic over the Static principle , of Mind 
over Matter, explains the phenomena resulting from the normal 
relation of the two principles. In the full-grown man, the mind 
controls the body, and handles it as a pliant instrument. The 
mind of a Raphael uses its trained eye and hand to execute the 
works of art in which it embodies its conceptions of the beautiful. 
The mind of a Newton uses its highly-organized brain to discover 
and elaborate scientific truths. In all branches of the Compound- 
Organic societies of the future, the Spiritual principle will pre¬ 
dominate. Industry, scientifically organized, dignified and rendered 
attractive,will be prosecuted voluntarily and from spiritual motives. 
In Government, when the sentiments*of justice and honorable ambi¬ 
tion shall preponderate in the human soul, the laws will be obeyed 
and public order upheld spontaneously, i.e., from spiritual motives ; 
for the moral sentiments, when fully developed, will as naturally 
attract man to social harmony, as the cultivated ear now attracts 
him to musical harmony. In Religion, when men shall compre¬ 
hend the laws which rule the cosmos, and reveal its plan and order 
—Laws which are the manifestation of the Divine Wisdom in 
action in Creation—their souls will be,filled with a supreme 
enthusiasm for the stupendous whole to which they belong. A 
profound aspiration for unity with the cosmic life and order will 
be the synthetic passion of every being, and upon that life and 
order as models will all terrestrial life be moulded. Then will 
the Religious sentiment be based wholly on spiritual motives, 
while the fears and selfish considerations which now govern men 
will wholly disappear. Finally, in the relations of Humanity 
with the Globe, the former, through organized Industry and asso¬ 
ciated effort, will subdue Nature, and establish material harmony 
and unity in her kingdoms. In the Compound-Organic societies of 
the future, Humanity, with its immense power and resources, will 


47 


make of its planet a Work of Art, stamping upon it tlie impress of 
its conceptions of beauty and harmony.* 

8. The Law governing the incomplete and non-functional Action of 
Forces in the embryonic stage , which we designate as Simple Action. 
It is their condition while moulding and fashioning matter, and 
the precursor of their complete and functional (compound) Action 
in the fully-developed stage. In the physical activity of man, the 
automatic movements of the embryo and infant perform no positive 
function or use, and produce no results of a practical character. 
They illustrate Simple Action in bodily movements, and are merely 
a preparation for the future physical activity of the grown man. 
In language, the incoherent babble of the infant and young child, 
which is thoughtless and expresses no ideas, is Simple Action in 
this sphere ; but, while useless in itself, it is a preparation for the 
exercise of methodical- language in adult age. The same Law 
governs the evolution of universal language. The primitive lan¬ 
guages, which were probably for the most part monosyllabic and 
agglutinative, and certainly without terms to express any general 
and abstract ideas, were in this state of Simple Action. Our modern 
languages, which have gradually grown out of them, have been 
greatly developed, but they have not yet* passed beyond the second 
stage of evolution. A unitary and universal language—the Com¬ 
pound-Organic of the future—to be spoken by Humanity over the 
entire globe, remains to be created. In the maternal sentiment, 
the little girl playing with her doll exemplifies Simple Action. 
While in itself functionless, it is the precursor of the future func¬ 
tion of motherhood, and of Compound Action in that sentiment. 


* From various data, we estimate that the labors of the armies of the world, com¬ 
bined and directed to industry, would in the course of a century reclaim and fertil¬ 
ize the great desert of Sahara. The work is one of supreme importance in the econ¬ 
omy of Nature, for this vast sand waste produces on the atmospheric system and the 
climate of our globe an influence of a most deleterious character, the extent of 
which is not suspected by men of science. Some 4,000 miles long by 800 broad, it 
presents to the rays of a tropical sun an immense area of sand, which, continually 
beaten upon, engenders an excessive and unnatural degree of heat at the equator, 
where it should least exist. From this gigantic furnace, vast vortices of hot and 
rarefied air rise into the upper regions of the atmosphere, which, falling north and 
south bn the colder latitudes, cause sudden and violent changes of temperature; or, 
coming in contact with the glacial currents of the arctic regions, produce those rapid 
successions of warm and cold winds which sweep over whole continents, and are so 
pernicious to the health of man and to vegetation. When this vitiated state of 
Nature shall be understood and duly appreciated, men will shudder at the physical 
disorders and dangers amid which they live. 






48 


In Industry, tlie present system of isolated, individual operations, 
having for object the attainment of purely personal ends—a sup¬ 
port or fortune—is Simple Action ; it is non-functional as regards 
the great end which the industrial labors of man should have in 
view. In Religion the same Simple Action reigns. Its Worship, 
which consists of a few rites and ceremonies performed in the 
temple or church, is without practical influence on the industrial 
and social life of Humanity. Its Morality is personal, and is 
attained mainly by the repression of the attractions of the soul, 
instead of by their integral and balanced development. Its Theol¬ 
ogy, which consists in traditions, revelations, visions, oracles, 
commands, and speculative doctrines, is based on these uncertain 
authorities, not on that of integral Laws, which alone can com¬ 
mand unconditional assent. 

The opposite Law in the Compound-Organic stage, that govern¬ 
ing the functional and creative action of Forces, is sufficiently 
explained by the comparisons made in the above remarks on the 
counter Law. 

In speaking of the remaining Laws, we will limit ourselves to a 
few of the phenomena they govern. In the sixth, we find Isola¬ 
tion and Darkness. These are relative terms, but the conditions 
they express accompany, in some mode, the evolution of all finite 
things during the embryonic stage ; in which stage they are shut 
out from association with their kind, and from what is for them 
light. In order to use this law as a guide, and render it available 
as an interpreter in all spheres, we must separate the phenomena 
mentioned from any concrete manifestation, and determine their 
abstract and general significance—their purely theoretical value. 
What do Isolation and Darkness mean in the abstract and univer¬ 
sal ? If the individual Man, during the embryonic process, lives 
in these states, what interpretation does it afford regarding the 
condition of the collective Man living in the embryonic societies ? 
If the social Organism, as the Laws indicate, is still in the first 
stage of evolution, Isolation and Darkness must be among the 
phenomena to which the collective man is subject. What are 
they in this sphere ? Does Isolation explain the fact that 
Humanity is in ignorance of the existence of Humanities on 
other globes, doubting even such existence ; and hence without 
any relation or association with them, ideal or practical ? Does 
Darkness indicate that Humanity, from want of intellectual 
development, is in like ignorance of its destiny and of the plan 


49 


and order of the Cosmos, shut out from the light of its Laws, its 
Wisdom ; and, from want of development of the sentiments—the 
means of spiritual vision—from the light of the spiritual life of 
the universe ? Does the converse Law of Association and Light 
indicate that, in the Compound-Organic societies of the future, 
Humanity will live and operate in unity with all the powers of the 
great solar Organism to which it belongs—the planets and the 
Humanities upon them—and that it will be guided by the Laws 
and animated by the spiritual life of the Cosmos ? To solve such 
vast and complex problems as the social state and destiny of 
Humanity in the Compound-Organic Societies of the future, the 
Laws must be discovered and their interpretations resorted to. 
Speculation and theorizing on such subjects are frivolous. 

Among the phenomena governed by the seventh Law is the 
partial Destruction and Reconstruction of parts, members, or 
elements of organisms during the embryonic process. These phe¬ 
nomena are observable only in complex systems into which a vari¬ 
ety of forces and elements enter. In animal organisms, for exam¬ 
ple, we see a withering up and destruction of certain vesicles, and 
their reconstruction in a higher degree. In the evolution of 
the successive social organisms of the past, we see a corre¬ 
sponding elimination by decay or destruction of institutions 
that have served their purpose. These alternate destructions 
and reconstructions cause men to think, reasoning from the 
experience of the past, that history is to move on forever in this 
course with the successive rise and fall of nations, leading to no 
ultimate result. But a knowledge of the Law would show that 
the lower forms eliminated are taken up and preserved in the 
higher which replace them. In the religious evolution, the pro¬ 
gressive and historical religions of the world which have come 
down in two great streams—the Semitic and Aryan—have, with 
the exception of the Jewish, been successively eliminated and 
taken up in higher forms ; they have not been destroyed and 
lost. Their essential elements have been preserved and transmitted, 
and are to-day embodied and living in the religion of our civiliza¬ 
tion. Its foundations were laid in ancient Egypt, Chaldea and 
Bactria ; and, although hidden away from view, they are still 
there, like the foundations of a vast structure concealed by the 
earth that covers them. This successive destruction of the exter¬ 
nal forms of religion and the elimination of elements of a non- 
essential character were necessary to a higher development and 


50 


combination. In the Geological evolution of the globe, the 
same phenomenon of progress through the successive elimi¬ 
nation and destruction of strata and creations is presented 
to us. 

Among the phenomena governed by the eighth Law are those 
of Antagonism and Conflict. They pervade all organisms in the 
embryonic stage. They are manifested in Politics by class antag¬ 
onisms and party strifes ; in Industry, by anarchical competition, 
the conflict of labor and capital, and the clashing of all interests ; 
in Social intercourse, by the dissensions of inidviduals in their 
business, domestic and other relations. A marked illustration of 
this phenomenon is found in the conflict which has reigned at 
certain epochs between Religion and Science ; or, going to the 
root of the struggle, between faith and reason, emotional belief 
and intellectual speculation, intuition and thought. We will refer 
briefly to the conflict in two eras, the Greek and the modern. In 
Greece, human Reason first emancipated itself from the dominion 
of Faith, and entered upon a career of inquiry on subjects before 
approached only by religion. By this emancipation, the first era 
of Free Inquiry in history was inaugurated ; and, during its course, 
that brilliant system of speculation, known as Greek Philosophy, 
was evolved. In the pre-Greek civilizations—the Egyptian, Chal¬ 
dean, Jewish and others—the religious sentiment was so prepon¬ 
derantly developed and so absolute in its sway that no liberty 
of thought, no free inquiry were tolerated. Greek genius first 
conquered intellectual independence, and created the Philo¬ 
sophy which gradually undermined the faith of the Greek and 
Roman worlds. After having subverted it, Philosophy ran 
a course of speculation that ended in a vast mass of un¬ 
certain and abstruse doctrines, which bewildered rather than 
enlightened—doctrines such as the mind must ever evolve 
when not aided by exact data furnished by observation and 
experience, or guided by Laws. Having run its course, it was 
in turn with its effete theories eliminated by Christianity, supe¬ 
rior to it in sentiment if not in intellectual scope. It was re¬ 
placed by a living Faith which acted practically on the conduct 
and lives of men, and guided the progressive races, especially 
the Teutonic, through the Middle Ages. In our modern age, in 
which the second era of Free Inquiry has arisen, the struggle 
lias been renewed. Reason is again in conflict with Faith, 
Science with Religion. The conflict of to-day is more complex 


51 


than was that of the past, inasmuch as Science and Theology are 
more developed than they were in the Greek age. 

The con diet will cease and a reconciliation be effected only 
when Science shall be sufficiently developed to explain those vast 
cosmic problems which the intuitions of the soul are forever 
yearning to know, and are ceaselessly stimulating reason to inter¬ 
pret. The physical sciences and our modern philosophic theo¬ 
ries cannot effect the reconciliation. The former treat only of the 
physical realm and its phenomena ; while the latter, without a 
Method which enables them to transcend the sphere of observation 
and experience, deny the possibility of a cosmic science. In 
their reaction against the old theological spirit, they assail not 
only its doctrines, but fundamental principles which lie above 
and are independent of them. 

These explanations of the great Law of Evolution, however 
brief and imperfect, will give the reader an idea of its comprehen¬ 
sive and complex character, as well as of the researches and 
studies that will be necessary to elaborate it fully. 

The existence of the Law lias been determined, and a few of its 
most general features indicated. In this rudimentary state, it is 
now used as guide and interpreter in departments of investigation 
in which the observation of the senses is impracticable. Darwin 
makes use of it in his theory of the mode of generation of species ; 
Herbert Spencer is employing it in his philosophical construc¬ 
tion ; and many other progressive thinkers of the age are resorting 
to it in their various departments of study. The following defini¬ 
tion of the Law, which we take from Herbert Spencer, who is 
considered authority on the subject, shows the degree of develop¬ 
ment it has reached. 

“ In respect to that progress which individual organisms dis¬ 
play in the course of their evolution, this question has been 
answered by the Germans. The investigations of Wolff, Goethe, 
and Von Baer have established the truth that the series of changes 
gone through during the development of a seed into a tree, or an 
ovum into an animal, constitute an advance from homogeneity of 
structure to heterogeneity of structure. In its primary stage, 
every germ consists of a substance that is uniform throughout, 
both in texture and chemical composition. The first step is the 
appearance of a difference between two parts of this substance ; 
or, as the phenomena is called in physiological language, a dif- 


52 


ferentiation. Each of these differentiated divisions presently 
begins itself to exhibit some contrast of parts; and by and by 
these secondary differentiations become as definite as the original 
one. This process is continuously repeated—simultaneously 
going on in all parts of the growing embryo ; and by such endless 
differentiation, there is finally produced that complex combination 
of tissues and organs constituting the adult animal or plant. This 
is the history of all organisms whatever. It is settled beyond 
dispute that organic progress consists in a change from the homo¬ 
geneous to the heterogeneous.” 

This definition of the Law, so incomplete and vague, explain¬ 
ing but one of its features, namely, the sequence of phenomena 
in evolution, demonstrates that it is as yet understood only in a 
rudimentary form. Strictly speaking, it is the Law in the embry¬ 
onic stage of its development. It cannot therefore serve as a 
guide in complex fields of scientific research. 

With our presentation of the Law, we will now proceed to 
illustrate the method of using it as a guide and interpreter, as a 
criterion of deduction. We will apply it to two important 
evolutions :—that of the Globe and that of the social Organism. 

Guided by the Law, we will trace out this two-fold evolution ; 
we will show how that of the globe precedes by one step or 
degree that of the social organism ; how they influence each 
other; the stage at which each has arrived ; the next step in 
progress to be taken, and how it is to be effected. By presenting 
this subject from a synthetic point of view, we hope to furnish a 
clue to the future course of Humanity and the social state at 
which it is finally to arrive. 

According to the Law, the globe with its strata, flora and fauna 
must, like the least creation in nature, pass through the three 
stages described. An organic germ of some kind—a planetary 
germ in a nebula, or possibly a cometic nucleus—must, we hold, 
have been its origin. This germ, absorbing the nebulous mist, 
or aggregating cosmic matter, evolved gradually the planetary 
body on which we live. That it was a ring of inorganic matter, 
which, thrown off of a revolving nebula, and cooling by contact 
with the external frigid ether, condensed into the globe, appears 
to us contrary to organic Laws. In either case, whether ring or 
germ, when the globe entered the plane of its orbit, and started 
on its career around the sun, its embryonic life began, and grad¬ 
ually, during a long process of development, the earth’s strata 


were successively formed, and the vegetable and animal kingdoms 
evolved. In this process, the most complex organic operations 
took place, and, from all indications, in subordination to a plan 
having an ultimate end in view. With the appearance of man, 
who sums up the creations below him, the embryonic period of 
the globe’s evolution closed ; figuratively speaking, it was born. 

The globe is now in the Single-Organic Stage of its evolution. 
It is organically formed; its continents, with their flora and 
fauna, are definitely constituted, but they are not yet raised to 
their normal and destined state of development. 

Upon the scene thus prepared, Humanity appeared and started 
on its career. After a period of instinctual life, during which it 
created language, exercised its faculties, and acquired some 
experience in hunting and pastoral pursuits, it founded, in local¬ 
ities favored by soil and climate, stable communities, and began 
the work of social elaboration and organization. Entering upon 
this great work without any knowledge of industry, the arts, 
sciences, and other elements or constituents of the social organ¬ 
ism, and without any experience of their organization, it has, 
since the dawn of creative history, been slowly and continuously 
engaged in preparing those elements, and in making experiments 
in their organization. At the present day, after some eighty to a 
hundred centuries of historical labors, the fundamental elements 
are created, and an ascending series of five experiments in social 
Construction has been effected. 

The social Organism is now in the formative or embryonic 
stage of its evolution—one degree behind that of the globe. This, 
we think, has been sufficiently demonstrated by preceding 
explanations. Or, if not, such demonstration is to be found in 
the fact of the existence of the Evils which reign in the social 
world. These can only be explained by the unorganized or in¬ 
completely organized, i.e., embryonic state of society; for, if 
the actual condition of things is normal and permanent , then 
Humanity and its globe are either some accidental and morbid 
outgrowth iu the universe, or no Cosmic Wisdom rules our 
realm. 

With this general view of the state of evolution of the globe 
and the social organism, we frame the following formula : 

Humanity is living on a globe in the Simple-Organic stage of its 
Evolution , and under a social Organism in the Embryonic stage of its 
Evolution. The former explains the incomplete and rude state of 



54 


development of Nature, and the material disorders that reign in 
her domain ; the latter, the low and perverted development of the 
human passions, and the moral discords and disorders which reign 
in the social world. 

The next advance in this two-fold Evolution will be the eleva¬ 
tion of the globe with its flora and fauna to the Compound-Or¬ 
ganic Stage, and of the social organism to the Simple-Organic. On 
Humanity depends the development, not only of the latter, but of 
the former. In the existing embryonic societies, however, which 
arc without industrial organization and association, it cannot 
effect that integral cultivation of the terrestrial surface which is 
requisite to the elevation of the globe. It must first raise the 
social organism to the Simple-Organic Stage, wherein it will 
acquire the industrial and other resources necessary to effect such 
material progress. 

What is to be the fundamental character of this next higher 
Order of society ? How will the transition to it be effected? 

The fundamental character will be Organization, but organiza¬ 
tion in its primary degree, beginning with Industry—the material 
foundation on which the higher institutions of society rest. As 
association, co-operation, concert of action and unity of interests 
are elements of organization, these will distinguish the next 
higher stage. 

By what means and in what manner the rise from our unorgan¬ 
ized and incoherent societies will take place, it is difficult to deter¬ 
mine. The general course of a career or an evolution can, in the 
light of laws, be calculated ; but details are often involved in 
obscurity; modifications and accidents may occur which cannot 
be precisely estimated. We will, however, indicate two diverse 
ways by which the passage to the next higher stage of society 
may be effected. 

Man tends, by virtue of his intellectual constitution, to organi¬ 
zation, to the introduction of combination, co-ordination and sys¬ 
tem into all departments of his affairs. Pie has, for example, 
organized War, and magnificently. The rulers of the world, 
deeply interested, both from ambition and necessity, in military 
operations, have applied to,their organization the wealth and 
talent of nations, and with what result is shown in the great 
armies of the world—truly wonderful creations in their way. 
What order, system and terrible efficiency have been introduced 
into the unnatural and horrible work of slaughter and destruction ! 


55 


With such an achievement before us, can we doubt the practica¬ 
bility of organizing useful and creative industry, and, in fact, all 
departments of the social system ? 

The two ways in which, as we discern, the work of social 
organization may be begun, are the following : 

1. The great Joint-stock Companies, which are now rapidly 
growing, and are acquiring such immense power, will gradually 
monopolize the various branches of productive industry, com¬ 
merce, and finance, i.e ., the business operations of nations. Having 
obtained control of them, they will introduce system and order 
into their prosecution and management; they will organize them ; 
but on unjust, false, and oppressive principles, as is already fore¬ 
shadowed in the great joint-stock manufactories now established. 
The Monopoly, well under way in the manufacturing and railroad 
interests, will be gradually extended to all branches: to commerce, 
and to agriculture (when the proper machinery for prosecuting it 
on a large scale—the steam-plow, etc., are invented). The companies 
will then form extensive coalitions, and inaugurate a new indus¬ 
trial, commercial, and financial regime, at the head of which will 
stand the great Capitalists of nations. They will own the press, 
control legislation, and become practically the rulers of society, 
as were the feudal Barons and Princes at the beginning of our 
civilization. When this false, this inverse Organization of the 
industrial system shall be effected, the spectacle of its selfish and 
material despotism will rouse the higher aspirations in man, and 
array human thought against it, as has slavery in our nineteenth 
century; while the model of organization furnished by it—al¬ 
though inverse—will serve as a guide in effecting a true organiza¬ 
tion. This “ Industrial Feudalism” is the first means by which an 
escape from our present unorganized and incoherent civilization 
may be effected. 

2. The true transition and direct path to social Organization 
would be through social Science. This, the most important of 
sciences, is now in process of elaboration, and some of its funda¬ 
mental principles have been discovered. Fully developed and 
placed on an exact foundation, so as to command universal 
assent, as do astronomy and geology, for instance, it would impel 
the thinkers and leaders of the world to undertake the work of 
social reconstruction. The human mind can no more resist intel¬ 
lectual conviction than matter can resist gravitation. Once let 
the light of an exact social Science dawn on the world of human 




56 


thought, and the latter will accept and act upon it. Even the 
kings and millionaires of our civilization would obey its impulse, 
and engage in the work of social organization. Other means of 
attaining the same result may exist; we mention these only as 
coming within the scope of our present experience. 

Let us suppose such Organization effected, and men living 
under the influence of just and benign social institutions, calming, 
on the one hand, the moral discords, excesses and disorders of our 
civilization, and, on the other, developing harmoniously the sen¬ 
timents and faculties of the soul. Humanity would then, while 
engaged in the work of terrestrial improvement, perfect itself 
physically and spiritually, train itself in social harmony, and thus 
prepare for the exalted life of the Compound-Organic stage. 

In connection with this subject, we will describe the two modes 
in which the human mind operates in effecting social Evolution 
—the instinctual and the reflective. 

In the progressive elaboration of a social organism by a race, the 
same mental processes and operations take place as in the ordinary 
creations of men, the only difference being that of scale, and the 
mode of exercise of the mind. In the former, the work is effected 
by a collective mind—that of a race—extended through ages, and 
continued by successive generations ; in the latter, by individual 
minds, and in short periods of time. In an architectural construc¬ 
tion, for instance, the materials which enter into and constitute 
it are first prepared, after which they are combined and arranged, 
that is, organized in accordance with the predetermined plan of 
an architect. In the creation of a social Order by a race (like the 
Greek Order by the Hellenic race, or the Medieval by the Teu¬ 
tonic) the same processes take place, though immeasurably more 
complex. First, the elements of the Order are elaborated :— 
branches of industry, rudiments of art and science, and some 
institutions with their laws and customs. These elements are as 
absolutely necessary to a social organization as are building mate¬ 
rials to an architectural construction. This primary elaboration 
of social elements takes place under the pressure of necessity, and 
is effected by instinct or intuition, guided by observation and 
reasoning in their simpler degrees. Then as these elements are 
elaborated, they are combined into a whole, constituting a system, 
which is regulated by laws and ordinances, devised by the found¬ 
ers of the system. In the early Egyptian Society, for example, 
the simplest branches of agriculture and the mechanic arts, with 


57 


the rudiments of architecture, sculpture, and mural painting, were 
evolved, and the family and religious institutions were estab¬ 
lished. As these elements were created, they were combined, and 
regulated by laws framed by the Egyptian Theocracy, the legisla¬ 
tors of that early period. The special character of the elaboration 
and organization—determined by the emotional and intellectual 
nature of the Egyptian people—constitute what is called the Egyp¬ 
tian Civilization. In the evolution of the social Orders founded 
by the Semitic race (the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Jews, 
and Cartlmgenians), and by the Aryan race (Medes, Persians, 
Greeks, Romans, Teutons, Celts, and Slavonians), the same pro¬ 
cesses of elaboration and organization took place. The social 
creations, and, to some extent, the experience of each preceding 
race, were handed down to the next succeeding one in the series of 
social builders ; and thus the work has been continued to the pres¬ 
ent day, constituting the great current of social evolution, of which 
our modern Civilization is the latest phase. The races which 
have worked successively on this vast social construction, and 
which form as many generations in Humanity, may be likened to 
the generations of builders who worked successively during a 
period of two or three centuries on some of the cathedrals of the 
Middle Ages. 

The comparison instituted between the construction of an edi¬ 
fice and the elaboration of a social organism may not appear 
obvious. In the former, the architect comprehends his work as 
a whole, and plans it from the beginning. Here conscious reflec¬ 
tion and design are exercised; while, in the latter, the collective 
mind, unconscious of the work in which it is engaged, operates 
by intuition and organizing instinct, without preconceived plan 
and design. But this seeming difference is easily explained : the 
edifice is a limited, definite thing, the creation of which a single 
mind can plan and oversee ; the social organism is a vast and com 
plex structure, the evolution of which, extending through ages, 
and requiring the co-operation of millions of minds, transcends 
the powers of conception of the individual mind, unenlightened 
by social science. The human mind has been unable to rise to a 
synthetic conception of the great social work in which it is 
engaged, and has consequently operated without method. But, 
in the future, wdien an exact social Science shall be created, it will 
operate with that conscious reflection, that forethought and design 
which are now manifested in the ordinary constructions of men. 


58 


If the most complicated architectural structure can now be reared 
with a-priori calculation, it is because architectural science has 
been created, and practical experience in that department gained. 
If we go back to the origin of the architectural art, we find the 
same instinctive gropings that have attended the great social elab¬ 
oration, the mind working its way up from the hut and the cabin 
to the temple and the cathedral. 

While, however, the evolution of a social organism as a whole 
has been the result of the instincts of a collective mind, each 
detail has been the work of the conscious thought and calcula¬ 
tion of individual minds. The cultivation of cereals, the manufac¬ 
ture of pottery, the weaving of fabrics, the working of metals, 
were each the product of conscious reflection. From the rude ox¬ 
cart of primitive times to the railroad of our day, a long process of 
evolution has taken place, effected as a whole by instinct, but the 
details have been the work of reflection and design. The stage¬ 
coach on macadamized roads—one of the intermediate links be¬ 
tween the two extremes—did not grow out of the ox-cart as does a 
plant out of the seed. It was thought out and constructed by calculation. 

By these observations we hope to make it evident that the 
social organism is not a thing of unconscious growth, a creation 
independent of the human mind, but is an elaboration of the col¬ 
lective mind, unconscious it is true of the great synthesis which 
it is slowly evolving, but conscious of its action in the creation of 
details. With the aid of an exact social Science, it will rise to a 
comprehension of the elaboration as a whole, and will direct it 
with a-priori calculation. 

Tlius, it will appear, the work of social progress may be effected 
either by the collective instincts, aided by thought in details, or 
by the synthetic action of human reason enlightened by social 
Science. 

We have touched upon only ^>ne of the Laws of the Second 
Class, and illustrated the manner of deducing from it in the study 
of. social problems. In order to convey an idea of the nature and 
extent of the Class, as a whole, we append a list of others, now 
more or less vaguely perceived and isolatedly applied. We are 
obliged to state them in artificial terms, since no nomenclature 
exists in which to express them with precision. To state them 
with that completeness and exactness which characterizes, for 
example, the Law of gravitation, the nature of the Forces under¬ 
lying and determining universal Organization must be clearly 


59 


understood, their Modes of action defined, and Formulas framed 
to express them. This is a work which will require no little labor 
in the future. 

Second Class : The Laws of Organization. 

1. The Law of Division or Analysis, governing the separation 
of Wholes into their constituent elements, parts, or members. 

2. The Law of Numbers, governing the numerical proportions 
of the parts entering into organized Wholes. 

3. The Law of Distribution (simple, primary classification), gov¬ 
erning the succession of varieties or elements of wholes, when 
arranged in their natural order, giving rise to Scales, Gamuts, and 
Octaves, like the musical and prismatic. 

4. The Law of Classification (complete, compound), governing 
the co-ordination and combination of homogeneous elements in 
Groups, and in Series or Equations of Groups, producing balance 
and equilibrium. 

5. The Law of Evolution, governing the progressive growth 
or development of all finite creations and their careers. 

6. The Law of Pivots, or directing Centres. 

4 7. The Law of Transitions, or connecting links. 

8. The Law of Dissonance, governing the repulsion, antipa¬ 
thy, rivalry of allied varieties or shades. 

9. The Law of Accord, governing the attraction, sympathy, 
concert, league of varieties or shades which are distinct and 
contrasted in character. 

10. The Law of Modulation and Alternation, with comparison 
and proportion. 

11. The Law of the Contact of extremes. 

12. The Law of Progression and Retrogression, or the ascend¬ 
ing and the descending vibration in universal life and movement. 

Etc., etc. 

These, among others, form that great Class of Laws which gov¬ 
ern the organic phenomena of creation, and determine the order, 
harmony and unity that reign therein. 

Such is our conception of the Laws of the universe as a Whole. 
According to our analysis there are two Classes : The first governs 
the material Forces in Nature—those which act through and on 
matter, decomposing, composing and otherwise preparing it for 
organization. They underlie and determine all inorganic phenom¬ 
ena. The second governs the organizing Forces in creation—/, e., a 


60 


system of distributing, classifying and combining Forces, the na¬ 
ture of which is not as yet understood. They underlie and deter¬ 
mine all organic phenomena. The Laws in question are Formulas 
framed by human thought to express in a way comprehensible to 
itself the modes of action of the two great systems of Forces 
which move the Universe—the one molding and fashioning the 
materials ; the other organizing them. Back of and above both, 
lies, according to our analysis, the Spiritual or Moral principle of 
the universe—the supreme Force, embodying itself in and arriv¬ 
ing at concrete existence through the first, employing as its instru¬ 
ment the second. 

In treating of the Laws, we have at the same time indicated 
what we consider the synthetic and integral method of study— 
Organon or Logic—which the human mind is destined to use in 
the future, when the Laws in question shall be discovered. Such 
a Method will consist in Deduction from these Laws, aided by a 
scientific system of analogy. A fine model of the Method is found 
in the deductions of astronomers from the Law of Gravitation, to 
which we have frequently referred. Since the great discovery of 
Newton, astronomers deduce from that Law with a power which 
appears to be limitless. When the Laws as a whole shall be dis¬ 
covered, the same power will be extended to and exercised in all 
departments of creation, and problems now considered beyond 
the reach of human reason will be solved. Each Law will consti¬ 
tute in its sphere a supreme synthesis, in the light of which all 
the details belonging to the sphere will be rendered mentally vis¬ 
ible. 

We now return to the point from which we started, in speaking 
of the necessity of a Science of Laics , and the absence of a concep¬ 
tion, on the part of the thinkers of our age, of the possibility of 
such a science. From all the evidence we have, we are sustained, 
we think, in affirming that the existence of a unitary Body or 
System of Laws, underlying and determining all phenomena in the 
universe, both organic and inorganic, and of an integral Method 
of Study based on Deduction from them, has not been as yet 
clearly and distinctly grasped by human reason. 

It is true that vague and general perceptions of such a system 
are everywhere manifest in the philosophies of the past and pres¬ 
ent ; but, as far as we can discern, no effort, based on an a-priori 
conception and systematically prosecuted, has ever been made to 


61 


discover the Laws as a whole, to systematize and codify them, and 
thus create that supreme Science, the Science of Laws, which 
alone can furnish mankind with a perfect intellectual guide and 
basis of authority. 

The best proof that can be offered of this deficiency of which we 
speak is the fact that two eminent thinkers of our age, who arc in 
possession of all the scientific conquests of humanity—Comte and 
Spencer—use in their labors but two Laws, and these in a frag¬ 
mentary state : the one, the Law of the “ three Stages” ; the other, 
that of Evolution. 

One more point remains to be considered. It may be asked, 
What is the source of these Laws ? What are they in their real 
nature, in ultimate analysis ? 

We have seen that the Laws of the First Class are formulas 
which express the modes of action of the material Forces in Na¬ 
ture. Can the character of those of the Second Class be deter¬ 
mined with equal clearness ? This is a subject involved in en¬ 
tire obscurity. We believe, however, that there exists in crea¬ 
tion a system of Forces quite distinct from those inherent in mat¬ 
ter, such as light, heat, electricity. They are as yet unknown to 
us ; in fact, their existence is not even suspected, although their 
effects are everywhere visible in the organic arrangement of the 
universe. They are the distributing, classifying, combining, 
planning, and regulating Forces, and operate in these complex 
modes as the material Forces operate in their single and simple 
modes. They underlie and effect organization—the sum and re¬ 
sult of the above operations—in all departments of creation. 

In order to throw some light on this involved subject, let us 
examine what Organization is, the conditions which enter into 
and the operations necessary to effect it. We will first consider 
the subject in the creations of man. From a basis in the concrete 
and observable around us, we may rise to the abstract and univer¬ 
sal, and thus determine the source and nature of Organization in 
general. 

Organization may be defined as the sum and result of a systematic 
distribution and combination of the parts in organic wholes ; the 
adjustment of the relations of parts ; the application of numbers ; 
the arrangements of pivots and transitions ; the observation of pro¬ 
portion and ratio, of plan and design, etc., culminating in a complex 
unity capable of fulfilling some given purpose, end or function. 


62 


The effecting of Organization in any sphere, from the least to 
the greatest, from the fashioning of a hoe or a spade to the organi¬ 
zation of a great army, from the construction of a canoe to that of 
a steamship, depends upon the following six organic operations : 

1. Analysis— Perception of the special and distinct characteris¬ 
tics, qualities, properties, etc., of the parts entering into the or¬ 
ganization—determination of the relations of Difference. 

2. Synthesis. —Perception of the resemblances, similitudes, adap¬ 
tations, fitness of the parts entering into the organization—deter¬ 
mination of the relations of Homogeneousness and Accord. 

3. Comparison. —Alternate perception of differences and resem¬ 
blances, or modulation between analysis and synthesis—an opera¬ 
tion necessary to the cumulative adjustment of things like and 
unlike. 

4. Perception of Cause and Effect —of the relations of antecedents 
to consequences, or the tracing of the action, influence and bear¬ 
ing of parts on one another. This mode of mental activity implies 
the holding of two terms in view in order to perceive their causal 
relations. 

5. Adaptation of Means to Ends —the synthetic perception of the 
plan or purpose had in view 'while the analytic selection of the 
parts and details takes place, an operation which involves the 
compound action of general and special perceptions. 

6. Perception of Plan and Design — the creation of an ideal 
whole, to which the parts and details are subordinated and 
adapted. 

These six operations necessarily imply the exercise of Thought, 
Reflection, Reasoning, Calculation, and hence can only be per¬ 
formed by a Power capable of such modes of activity. This 
power in man is called Mind—a whole composed of subpowers 
termed intellectual Faculties. It is these Faculties which are the 
agents of Organization in the human sphere. They are the plan¬ 
ners, arrangers, combiners— i. e. y the organizers. 

We come now to ask : What are these Faculties in reality ? The 
word Faculty is an abstract term, conveying no idea of a positive 
quality or essence. Primarily we may define them to be Forces, 
and, to this extent, arrive at some practical idea of their nature. 

That they are Forces is proved by the fact that, as previously 
stated, they impel man to action, consume phosphorus in the 
brain, and operate on the nerves of voluntary motion. 

From preceding statements, it will be seen that what we term 


68 


thinking, reasoning, calculating, are, in the organic world, equiv¬ 
alent to distribution, classification, combination, planning, etc. 
On this basis, then, we may define the intellectual faculties to be 
the distributing, classifying, combining, and planning, i. <?., organ¬ 
izing Forces in man. When the modes of action of these Forces 
shall be clearly and exactly determined, and formulas framed to 
express them, we shall come into possession of the Laws of Or¬ 
ganization in the human sphere. 

Now, from this view of the subject in the finite and comprehen¬ 
sible, let us rise to the sphere of the universal and infinite, as, 
from the study of terrestrial chemistry, we rise to that of cosmic 
chemistry ; from the movements of bodies on the surface of the 
earth to the movements of the planetary bodies, and from the 
nature of electricity to the nature of lightning. 

Without attempting, in this place, to present proofs, we affirm 
that Organization is one throughout creation. There can no more 
be two kinds of Organization than there can be two kinds of 
mathematics. The same processes enter into and the same con¬ 
ditions must be fulfilled in its realization in all spheres. Effects 
and phenomena differ, but the organic processes are everywhere 
identical in their character. Again, if Unity in Organization pre¬ 
vails throughout creation, the Forces which evolve Organization 
must also be the same, provided unity of effects implies unity of 
cause. On these grounds we assert (what appears to us a self- 
evident corollary) that there must exist in the Universe a system 
of distributing, classifying, combining and planning Forces 
which evolve the cosmic organizations, and through it that stu¬ 
pendous order and harmony which characterize the infinite whole. 

If we designate these Forces by the same term that we apply to 
them in man, we may speak of a Supreme or Universal Mind, and, 
as like forces produce like results, of a Mind which plans and 
orders the universe, performing on an infinite scale those organic 
functions which man, on an abridged scale, performs on the 
earth. Of this Supreme Mind, the finite mind of man is a part and 
manifestation. If we can so generalize the formulas which express 
the modes of action of the organizing forces in the latter as to 
make them apply universally and include organic phenomena in 
all realms, we shall be able to comprehend the nature of the Laws 
of universal Organization. 

Thus, from the system of organizing Forces which we observe 
in man, we rise to the conception of a like system in the cosmos, 


G4 




as from the observation of the material forces in Nature around us 
we rise to a knowledge of their existence in the universe as a 
whole. And this brings us to the definition we have sought : 
namely, that, as the Laws of the First Class are Formulas which 
express the Modes of action of the material Forces in Creation, 
so the Laws of the Second Class are Formulas which express the 
modes of action of the organizing Forces in Creation. Or, by 
further extending the comparison, we may say, that as the Laws 
framed by men are the manifestation of the operations of their 
minds, organizing and ordering in their sphere, so the laws of 
the Second Class are the manifestation of the operations of the 
Supreme Mind organizing and ordering in the universal sphere. 

The objection will at once be raised, that there exists a funda¬ 
mental differance between the Organizations of Nature and those 
of man, and that therefore they must be the result of distinct pro¬ 
cesses and governed by distinct laws. No parallelism, it will be 
urged, can be established between the mechanism of a steam-en¬ 
gine and the organization of a horse. 

To this we reply that what constitutes the supposed difference 
between the organizations of Nature and of Man is a difference in 
the materials operated upon. Man operates on mutter in the mass, 
while Nature operates on molecular matter and Forces: the one evolv¬ 
ing inanimate or static, the other living organizations. Could 
man manipulate forces, as he does matter in the mass, he too could, 
like Nature, evolve living organizations, or, rather, the organic 
germs of them. But the difference of material does not imply 
and necessitate a difference in the organizing power. On the 
contrary, it is easily demonstrable that exactly the same condi¬ 
tions, mathematical and mechanical, exist in both, and can be 
realized only by identical means or processes ; i.e., by the six 
operations above described. 

Again, the assumption of a parallelism between the organiza¬ 
tions of Man and those of Nature may be objected to on the 
ground that the latter, starting from organic germs (seeds and 
ovums), are evolved unconsciously, without the aid of thought or 
intellectual combination ; and that therefore the conditions neces¬ 
sary in the constructions of man are not applicable to them. But 
the organic germs which are the starting point of the creations 
in Nature are themselves complexly constituted, and possess all 
the conditions of organization. Hence tlie 3 r must be the product 
of organizing Forces. To prove that unconscious evolution exists 


65 


in Nature, and that her productions need not be the result of such 
Forces, it must be shown that these seeds and ovums are the re¬ 
sult of the action of unconscious forces, of spontaneous generation, 
or some other process of the kind. This principle of primary and 
secondary evolution, which in Nature appears so mysterious, also 
exists in the creations of man, in which sphere it may be easily 
observed and understood. Man constructs a machine which 
weaves a fabric of a complex pattern, or cuts a screw. These are 
organized products into which enter design and calculation, and 
yet they are evolved unconsciously by the machine. Back of the 
machine, however, lies the organizing mind of the machinist, 
whose thought is embodied in it, and through it is incorporated in 
the product. The machine holds the same relation to the product 
that the seed or ovum holds to the organism developed out of it. 
This is an additional analogy which strengthens the assumption 
that underneath organic combination in all spheres, there lie the 
same combining and organizing Powers. 

Having observed the operation of Mind in the field of mechan¬ 
ical organization, let us next observe it in a field more abstract— 
in the framing of Laws, for example, for the regulation of society. 
Although the latter may seem very different from the former, in 
principle they are the same. The mind in framing Laws op¬ 
erates in the same manner that it does in planning machinery. 
In the framing of Laws, it reasons and reflects on the proper mode 
of combining, adjusting, and regulating the general relations and 
interests of men with a view to establish order and justice in 
society. The Laws thus formed are the manifestation of the 
thoughts and calculations of the legislators. They are formulas 
which express the modes of action of the mind in framing them. 

We might continue our illustrations in order to show that the 
organizing action of mind is the same in all spheres. Operating 
on numbers and forms, it evolves mathematics; on sounds, it 
composes music ; on colors, it creates works of art ; on obser¬ 
vations and ideas, it elaborates the sciences. A Solon who 
frames a political code ; a Plato who constructs a philosophy ; a 
Newton who calculates the Law of Gravitation ; a Cuvier who 
classifies the animal kingdom; a Stephenson who plans the railway; 
or a Napoleon w’ho commands the movements of an army, mani¬ 
fest alike the distributing, arranging, and regulating action of the 
mind, though in widely different fields of operation. 

In the sphere of the universal, the action of this organizing 


GO 


Power or Principle is manifested in the distributive arrangement 
of planets in solar systems (of which the force of gravity atfords 
no explanation), of suns in higher systems, of the material and dy¬ 
namic elements in creation, and in the organisms of all living 
things. 

Having met the objections based on the difference of materials, 
and of the mode of evolution or creation, we present as our 
conclusions the following hypotheses : 1. That there exists in the 
universe a Power which is capable of performing the operations 
we have described as necessary to Organization and the exercise 
of regulative action ; 2. That no organization is possible except 
by such a Power ; 3. That Mind in man is a manifestation of 
this Power, hence in Unity with it, and having a function to per¬ 
form in its sphere identical with that of Mind in all other spheres, 
and with the cosmic Mind in the totality of the universe.* 

It is of this Power that the Laws of the Second Class are the 
formulas. 

We will finally close our remarks on this vast and complex sub¬ 
ject with a presentation of the Laws as a whole. According to 
our conception, there exist in the Universe two great classes of 
Laws, underlying and governing two great systems of Forces. 

First Class : The Laics of the Material Forces —formulas, or general¬ 
izations which express the regular and permanent modes of action 
of the Forces operating on and through matter, composing, de¬ 
composing and otherwise preparing its elements for Organization. 


* Our age is renewing and enlarging a conception of the Greek genius, that Mat¬ 
ter and Force, acting and reacting on each other through long periods of time, com¬ 
bined with a later idea, that of progressive evolution from primary germs under the 
influence of external conditions, can explain the infinitely varied organizations in 
creation, and the order that reigns in all spheres. The error of this hypothesis is 
demonstrated, we think, by the mathematical calculation of chances and possibili¬ 
ties, as well as by the principle of Unity of system in creation. 

How can it be logically assumed that the organic world with its boundless com¬ 
plexity can be the product of unconscious forces and unconscious growth, when, in 
man’s creations, where the conditions involved are so much simpler, nothing is pro¬ 
duced without conscious calculation and thought.. Even so trifling a construction as 
a hoe or a spade involves a score of relations to be adjusted, with as many conditions 
to be fulfilled. Will any rational mind affirm that unconscious matter and forces, 
operating through any number of ages, could evolve either of these— i.e., adjust the 
relations and fulfill the conditions which are necessary in their construction ? And if, 
in this limited sphere, organization is impossible without conscious calculation and 
thought, how much more impossible must it be in the complex organizations of 
Nature. 





They underlie and govern the phenomena of the material world, 
and may be designated, the Inorganic Laws of creation. 

Second Class : Tlie Laws of the organizing and regulative Forces —for¬ 
mulas which express the modes of action of that system of Forces 
in the universe which distribute, classify and combine its infinitely 
varied elements, plan and order their relations, and establish har¬ 
mony and unity in them. They underlie and determine the phe¬ 
nomena in all realms of organization, and may be distinguished 
as the Organic Laics of creation. 

Or, substituting the term Mind for that, of Force, we may in 
more familiar language say that the Laws of the Second Class are 
the manifestation of the calculations of the Supreme Mind in 
distributing, classifying and combining the infinitely varied 
elements of the universe, evolving an organic whole through 
which spiritual Life can arrive at concrete existence, and univer¬ 
sal destinies be accomplished. Each Law is a Thought of the 
Supreme Mind, and the totality of the Laws is the expression of 
the totality of its Thoughts—the Wisdom, the Logic of the uni¬ 
verse concretely manifested. 

In Religious language, these Laws are the manifestation of the 
Reason of God in action in creation, planning and ordering a uni¬ 
verse through which His Love can express itself, and His Divine 
Will be fulfilled. 

The discovery of the Laws of the Second Class and their system¬ 
atic co-ordination, forming the Science of Laws , is the supreme 
intellectual work now waiting on the genius of our age, for it is 
upon these Laws that an exact Social Science must be founded. 
Resting on any other basis, such a Science is a mere speculation 
or an empty theory. Strictly speaking, Social Science is but the 
application of the Laws of general organization to the special or¬ 
ganization of Society and its institutions. 

The Laws of the Second Class will furnish, as said, the basis of 
that INTEGRAL METHOD OF STUDY, OR ORGANON OF INVESTIGATION 
which the human mind is destined to use in the future, and 
through which it will attain to the plenitude of its power. Method 
in science, we may repeat, is to the intellectual Faculties what 
implements and machinery are to the hands in industry ; and their 
capacity is gauged by the nature of the Method they employ. 
With our present fragmentary Logics, Methods and Organons, 
the mind cannot penetrate to, and operate in realms of universal 
thought ; it cannot elaborate those sciences of a complex and 


68 


involved character so necessary to the enliglitentment and eleva¬ 
tion of Humanity. We may say with truth that man in our civil¬ 
ization is as weak in the field of the higher sciences, and as poor 
in the higher orders of intellectual wealth, as the savage and bar¬ 
barian is weak in industry, and poor in material wealth. It is 
truly astonishing to see so many thinkers treating abstruse and 
universal problems with our present limited Methods, striving 
to construct comprehensive theories with such little mental tools 
and instruments. 

In the Integral Method, the mode of using the Laws will be 
by deduction. Laws being supreme and final generalizations, 
induction ceases to be applicable. But this deductive process 
must be supported by two auxiliaries which shall serve as guides 
to the mind in its employment : 1. By a positive Science of Anal¬ 
ogy (a beginning to which has been made in comparative anat¬ 
omy) ; 2. By a system of Axioms which in the regions of universal 
science shall correspond to the simple axioms of geometry. In 
fact, a proper use of the Method involves the necessity of a higher 
order of mathematics—of what we will term compound mathemat¬ 
ics ; universal Principles there taking the place of the rules, 
formulas and axioms used in our simple mathematics. Such a 
Method may be said to consist of two parts : First, the Laws, 
which are the basis of authority, the criterion and guide ; sec¬ 
ond, the Deductive Process, which, with an exact science of 
Analogy and a comprehensive body of Axioms, is the art —the 
practical means of applying it. 

Analysis of the Integral Method. 


£ 


COSMIC LAWS, j 
The Basis of Authority | 

l 


DEDUCTION. 


<3 

tg Science of Analogy. 


^ System of Axioms. 

<M 


We here conclude our treatment of the Laws. It has of neces¬ 
sity been very brief, and presents scarcely more than an outline 
sketch. We have, however, indicated the essential points of the 
subject, and furnished sufficient data to enable those interrested to 
pursue the investigation for themselves. 

We place here a definition of social Science and a Table of the 




69 


social Organism, deferred to this point for the reason that at the 
opening, their apparently appropriate place, they might have been 
unintelligible, and would probably have been passed over with¬ 
out interest. Now the reader is in possession of the data 
necessary to understand our analysis with its technicalities. 

SOCIAL SCIENCE, 

WITH ITS FOUR FUNDAMENTAL BRANCHES. 

THEORY f 1. Progressive elaboration of the Elements of the 

op social Organism—industrial, artistic, scientific, poli- 

SOCIAL EVOLUTION, j tical, social, and religious, 
in the past and present, or j 2. Successive experiments in their Organization, 
course of development of the giving rise to the historical Societies of the past and 
Embryonic Societies. (present. 


THEORY 

OP 

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, 
m the Simple and Compound- 
Organic Stages of Society. 


cl. 

2 . 

3. 



Organization of Education. 

“ of Industry. 

“ of Social Institutions. 

“ of Political Institutions. 

“ of Religion. 

“ of the Fine Arts, 

of the Sciences. 


THEORY 

op f 1. Theory of the development of the psychical 

SOCIAL OR COLLECTIVE J Forces under Institutions perfectly adapted to them. 

PSYCHOLOGY. ] 2. Theory of the social functions of the Forces and 

Compound-Organic Psychol- l their external harmonies, 
osrv. 


THEORY 

OP 

COLLECTIVE FUNCTIONS 
AND DESTINIES. 
Compound - Organic Social 
Life and Labors. 


r 1. Industrial Supervision of the globe: Accom¬ 
plishment by Humanity of its industrial Destiny. 

2. Establishment of social Harmony on the earth: 
Accomplishment of social Destinies. 

| 3. Organization of the material and social worlds 

in conformity with the laws of universal Organiza- 
l tion: Accomplishment of intellectual Destinies. 


The Table (see next page) presents the social Organism in its in¬ 
tegrality. We can, by comparison, show the incomplete state of 
the embryonic social Organism under which we are living. 

In Education, the first and second branches are wanting—unde¬ 
veloped ; the 'bird branch is fragmentarily developed. 

In social Institutions, the first and fourth branches are wanting- 
undeveloped ; the second exists in an artificial form in Government, 
the Army, and the Catholic Church ; the third, from imperative 
social necessities, has been organized, but in a very limited manner. 

In the fine arts, music alone has been scientifically constituted. 
The others are empirically developed, with the exception of the 
last three, whose existence is not even suspected. 

Of the sciences, the Mathematical and Physical alone are devel¬ 
oped, while of the higher sciences the foundations even are 
not laid. 

' It is scarcely necessary to state that the institutions which do 
exist are either incompletely organized or falsely organized. 




General Branches. Pivotal Branch. Three primary Branches. Transitional Branch 


( 




70 


TABLE OF THE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 


WITH ITS PRIMARY AND SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS. 


PRIMARY 

INSTITUTIONS. 


EDUCATION. 

Development of 
the Child — the 


SECONDARY 

INSTITUTIONS. 

PHYSICAL and 
INDUSTRIAL. 

MORAL and 
SOCIAL. 


INTELLECTUA 
and 


L 


I tne unnci — tne ana 

l germ of the Man. L SCIENTIFIC. 


r 


INDUSTRY. 

Creation of 
Wealth. Culti¬ 
vation of the 
globe. 


PRODUCTION 
of Wealth. 

EXCHANGE 
of Wealth. 


SOCIAL 

INSTITUTIONS. 

Regulation of 
personal rela¬ 
tions and in¬ 
terests. 


DIVISION 
_ of Wealth. 

FRATERNAL 

INSTITUTION. 

HIERARCHICAL 

INSTITUTION. 

MARRIAGE. 

INSTITUTION. 

FAMILY 

INSTITUTION. 


1 


i 

l 


institution^. f LEGISLATION. 

Regulation of J 
collective rela- 


f Development of Body and the Senses. 
! Initiation of the Child into produc- 
! tive Industry, preparing it to become a 
Itself supporting producer. 

( Development of the social Sentiments. 
< Initiation of the Child into social life, 
(and the exercise of the social virtues. 

Development of the Mind by scien¬ 
tific instruction. Initiation of the Child 
into the Sciences. 


J 


Agriculture, Manufactures, Trans¬ 
portation, Mining, Fishing, Trapping, 
(Household labors. 

| Commerce, Banking. 

( Laws and customs which regulate 
-■property, capital, labor, skill, divi¬ 
dends, rent, interest, taxation. 

( Governing the relations of Men as 
-(members of the same race and as 
(equals.—System of Rights. 

( Governing the relations of Men as 
-< distinguished by capacity, talent, skill, 
(merit.—System of ranks and grades. 

| Governing the relations of the Sexes. 

( Governing the relations of Parents 
-<and Children, and of the strong and 
(the weak. 


The framing of Laws. 

The JUDICIARY. The Interpretation of Laws, 
tions ^ and in- EXECUTIVE ^ The Execution of Laws. 


RELIGION. 

Aspirat ion of the 
finite Soul for 
unity with the 
universal Soul. 


WORSHIP. 


MORALITY. 


FINE ARTS. 


SCIENCES. 


\ 


THEOLOGY. 


MATERIAL 

HARMONY. 


f System of Rites and Ceremonies, in 
! the performance of which Man mani- 
| fests his adoration for, and desire to 
(serve the supreme or cosmic Soul, 
r System of Life and Conduct, based 
I on Man's conception of the attributes 
| of the Deity, and conformed to from 
(aspiration for moral Unity with it. 
f Theory of the Divine Nature and its 
I attributes; of the Laws of its Wisdom ; 
j its Government of the universe ; future 
(.destinies of Souls. 

T Music, Poetry, Painting, Sculpture, 
! Architecture, Decoration, Pantomime, 
"j and the odoriferous, saporous and tac¬ 
tile Arts. 


C Science of Matter, its Forces and 
DIRECTION and J their Laws; of Organization and its 
ENLIGHT’NM’NT'i Laws; of the Psychical Forces and 
(Sociology; of Cosmogony. 















71 


We now return to Fourier. We left him in the early pages of. 
this essay in order to take such a view of Society and its Laws 
as would prepare the way for an understanding of his theory. 
Biographically, we may mention that from the commencement of 
his studies, about 1798, to the time of his death, October 11, 
1837, he continued his labors uninterruptedly. He was engaged 
some twenty years in the elaboration of his theory. His principal 
MSS. were written between 1814 and 1820. 

As already stated, the distinctive character of Fourier’s Theory 
of social' Organization is that it is founded on Laws, and is in 
every sense a Deduction from them. The pivotal idea animating 
him was that Laws are the only guide of the mind in this 
involved sphere of investigation, and he scrupulously avoided the 
framing of theories on subjects where he could not use Laws as 
interpreters. The early years of his labors were spent in a search 
for these—the intellectual tools and implements which were to 
serve him in his construction. Whatever errors may exist in 
his magnificent creation are due, then, either to imperfect deduc¬ 
tions, or to incomplete conceptions of Laws. His constant criti¬ 
cisms of the speculative sciences (the metapli} r sical, ethical, 
political, and economic, as he classes them) shows his antipathy 
for the speculative spirit. 

The explanation we have given of the three Stages of social 
Evolution, and the states of organization in them, will enable us to 
indicate concisely the exact nature of Fourier’s elaboration. He 
undertook the gigantic work of discovering and determining the 
Scientific Organization of Society, i.e ., the constiti tion of the 
social organism in what we have defined as its Compound-Or¬ 
ganic Stage ; and the social Order explained in the work which 
follows presents the result of this bold attempt. It is in the light 
of the grand idea which the Compound-Organic stage of society 
presents that his social Organization is to be studied and judged, 
not from the standpoint of our existing habits, customs, and 
prejudices—all determined by the embryonic institutions under 
which we live. 

Fourier passes over the transitional states of society which may 
intervene between the embryonic present and the Compound- 
Organic future, affirming that with the actual development of 
industry and the physical sciences (both well advanced) such an 
organization would be easier of realization than any lower, trans¬ 
itional form, since it is more natural, and would be more attrac- 




72 


tive to man. Guided by Instinct alone, and groping its way with 
uncertain steps, Humanity may drag on for a long period through 
revolutions, blood, and misery ; while by an effort of genius it 
might discover the Laws of social organization, and upon them 
establish the normal order of society. 

In the study of Fourier the reader will bear in mind that he 
treats a subject outside of the present range of thought, and to judge 
which no standard of comparison exists. He undertook to solve 
the two-fold problem of the normal and integral organization of 
human society, and the normal and harmonious development of 
the psychical Forces in and through it; the one being the ex¬ 
ternal mechanism, the other the living principle within. To 
appreciate even, not to speak of passing judgment on his work, 
some knowledge must be possessed of the Laws of organization in 
nature—Laws the existence and general character of which it has 
been our effort to explain. 

His theory of Education offers a solution of the problem of the 
scientific or compound-organic organization of Education ; his 
system of labor, of the scientific organization of Industry ; his sys¬ 
tem of social arrangements and relations, of the scientific organi¬ 
zation of social Institutions ; his political theory, of the organi¬ 
zation of Government. 

These four theories of Organization offer substitutes for four 
corresponding theories, or so-called sciences, of a purely specula¬ 
tive character, now controlling public opinion and entirely mis¬ 
leading the popular mind on social questions. 

The first offers a substitute for our fragmentary and false 
systems of education ; the second, for our speculative political 
economy, so destitute of justice and human sympathy ; the third, 
for our absurd moral and ethical sciences, which are theories 
based on the perverted development of human nature regarded as 
natural; the fourth, for our speculative political sciences and 
theories of government. 

Thus it will be seen that Fourier undertook to solve the most 
important of problems ; namely, the discovery of the Compound- 
Organic or normal Organization of human Society—a discovery 
on which the elevation and happiness of the human race depend. 

At the present day, Humanity possesses the Power of effecting 
the Organization, as is proved by its achievements in the material 
sphere. It now awaits the Light. 


THEORY OF UNIVERSAL UNITY, 


i. 

GENERAL AND PRELIMINARY VIEWS. 

Agricultural Association, which in all ages has been deemed 
impossible, would produce results of unbounded magnificence: the 
rigorous demonstrations, the mathematical calculations by which these 
results will be verified, will not, however, prevent the picture of the 
future harmony and happiness which they present from repelling minds 
habituated to the miseries and wretchedness of our present Civilization. 

Were I to assert, for example, that Association would in a brief 
period — in the course of a few years — triple the annual product of 
Industry or the wealth of nations, so that that of France, estimated at 
the present time [1822] at five thousand millions of francs a year, 
would be augmented to fifteen thousand millions, I should incur the 
charge of extravagant exaggeration; and yet after a perusal of this work 
it will be seen that this estimate, instead of being too high, is, in fact, 
placed entirely too low. 

If, on the other hand, I were to promise some great political re¬ 
sult as a consequence of Association, such for example as the fusion and 
absorption of all political parties, and a complete termination of their 
dissensions, I foresee that distrust would increase, and that my views 
would excite complete derision. 



6 


PRELIMINARY VIEWS. 


This miracle of social concord would result, not from direct con¬ 
ciliation, which would be impossible, but from the development of new 
interests, and especially from the amazement with which the minds 
of men would be filled on being convinced of the radical falseness of 
the civilized social Order by comparison with the associative or com¬ 
bined, and of the errors in which the social world has been so long 
plunged, — misled by speculative Philosophy , which upholds and extols 
this order with all its defects, to the entire neglect, of the study of 
Association. 

Speculative Philosophy, which has so long governed and misled the 
human mind, is composed of four branches: 1. Metaphysics. 2. Poli¬ 
tics. 3. Moralism.* 4. Political Economy. These speculative and un¬ 
certain sciences will fall at once before the theory of Association of 
which it is said, “it is too perfect for man, therefore it is impossible.” 
Their errors and illusions are at length to be dispelled ; the theory of 
Association is discovered and in all its details. Its practical realization 
depends upon the application of the Law of universal distribution and 
arrangement in nature, which I will call the u Meries of groups , con¬ 
trasted , rivalized and interlinked .” In the course of this treatise it will 
be shown that Association is impossible, unless based on this'funda¬ 
mental law of Nature’s plan of organization. 

The Series of Groups is the method adopted by God in the distri¬ 
bution of the kingdoms of Nature, and throughout the whole realm of 
creation. The same method ought, according to the law of Unity of 
System , be applicable to the Passions and to human relations : the 
problem was to discover the mode of application. 

I do not propose, then, an unknown method, — one of my own in¬ 
vention. I employ that which God applies throughout the universe, 
and this, I think, is a guarantee which should entitle the theory to a 
provisional confidence—that is, until tested by experience. 

There is no idea more .novel, more surprising, than that of associ¬ 
ating three hundred families of different degrees of fortune, knowledge 
and capacity. It is a proposition that will be immediately met with 


* I use the term Moralism and not Morality; nothing is more praiseworthy than 
the precepts which inculcate good morals, hut Moralism or the spirit of controversy 
in morals is as useless a science as the three others. 

To these four sciences I give the collective name of Philosophj r , and when I use 
the term I designate one or more of them. 



PRELIMINARY VIEWS. 


7 


the objection that it is impossible to associate even three families, much 
less three hundred. It is true that three families cannot be associ¬ 
ated ; and I, who am conversant with the theory of Association in all 
its degrees, can affirm that in the lowest degree, more than thirty fam¬ 
ilies are requisite; it may be organized with forty, and from that 
number up to three hundred. To explain an operation so entirely 
new, so incomprehensible, when judged by our present methods, we 
must first refute the errors and prejudices on which these methods are 
based. 

The possibility of associating two or three hundred families in agri¬ 
cultural and manufacturing Industry depends upon a system so entirely 
different from what now exists, that it will open to the reader a new 
social world. He must consequently, in the study which opens before 
him, follow the guide with confidence, bearing constantly in mind the 
gigantic results which will flow from Association. Such results are 
well worth the sacrifice of a few prejudices. Every sensible reader 
will be of this opinion, and will concur to follow the advice which I 
shall constantly give, namely, to neglect the form and style of 'presenta¬ 
tion, and occupy himself solely with the substance of the theory , seeking 
to determine whether the process of Association is really discovered or 
not. 

There is a class of writers who are ever boasting of the progress 
of Civilization and of the human mind in modern times. If we w r ere 
to credit their pretensions, we should be led to believe that the science 
of Society had reached its highest degree of perfection, because old 
metaphysical and economic theories have been somewhat refined upon. 

In answer to their boasts of social progress, is it not sufficient to 
refer to the deeply-rooted social evils which exist, and which prey 
upon our boasted civilized social Order. We will mention but a 
single one, the frightful increase of National debts and of taxation. 
Where is a remedy to be found for this scourge ? Can our political 
and economic sciences suggest one ? They tend only to increase the 
evil, if we may infer from the fact that the countries which have pro¬ 
duced the greatest number of political economists with the most subtle 
theories, are the most deeply involved in debt; witness, for example, 
France and England. These debts, gigantic as they are, could easily 
be extinguished by the immensely increased product which would re¬ 
sult from a scientific Organization of Industry and from Association. 
This is but one of the immeasurable advantages that would grow out 


8 PRELIMINARY VIEWS. 

of the inauguration of the Combined Order, against which the four 
philosophic sciences will direct their attacks, declaring it to be imprac¬ 
ticable, impossible. How grossly have the moderns been deceived in 
giving credit to these sophistical sciences, which, to sustain the present 
system, and the pride and position of their authors, would persuade 
the world that needed discoveries are impossible, and, under this pre¬ 
tense, foreclose all inquiry in this direction. 

Other sciences — mathematics, physics and chemistry—are making 
real progress, but so far from being vain of their success, students in 
these departments admit that there yet remains much to be discovered. 
Political and moral theorists pursue a contrary course; the greater the 
increase oPsocial evils, and the greater the ignorance that exists as to 
the means of exterminating them, the louder are their praises of the 
progress of Civilization. The political experiments of modern times, 
however, demonstrate that nothing is to be hoped from their doctrines, 
and that efficient remedies for existing social evils must be sought for 
in some new Science. 

All minds are more or less imbued w r ith and misled by reigning 
philosophic theories and teachings; even those who think they are 
opposed to the doctrines of speculative philosophy are filled with the 
• prejudices they inculcate, and disbelieve in the possibility of any great 
social changes. Religious minds, which are distrustful of philosophic 
dogmas, fall into the error — inculcated by philosophy — of supposing 
that Providence is limited in its action ; that it does not extend to the 
social world or the social relations of mankind, and that God has not 
determined upon any plan of social Organization for the regulation of 
those relations. If they had a profound faith in the universality 
of Providence, they would be convinced that all. human needs must 
have been foreseen and provided for, and especially that the most ur¬ 
gent of them all could not have been overlooked — namely, the need 
of a social Order for the regulation of our industrial and social 
relations. 

I do not speak of political relations the error of science is that it 
has been for thirty centuries past almost exclusively engaged in admin¬ 
istrative controversies, which serve only to excite commotions; it 
should have devoted its attention to the question of industrial and do¬ 
mestic Organization, to the art of associating isolated households or 
families, and of realizing the colossal economies, the enormous profits, 
which such Association would produce. 




PRELIMINARY VIEWS. 


9 


It is well known that agricultural and domestic Association, were 
it possible, would give rise to a gigantic production, to vast economies, 
and, as a consequence, to universal wealth. The Creator could not 
have been ignorant of this. What, then, must have been his design 
in regard to it? When he determined upon a system for the regula¬ 
tion of the industrial and social relations of mankind, he could only 
choose between Association and the isolated, individual method. Which 
of the two has he designed for us ? If he has decided in favor of As¬ 
sociation, as may be reasonably supposed, we should have sought for 
the laws which he must have framed for it. Had human reason de¬ 
voted its attention seriously to the solution of this problem, it would 
soon have solved it by the discovery of those law's. 

But to have entered upon such an investigation would have been 
to run counter to existing philosophic prejudices, and to have cast sus¬ 
picion on our political and economical doctrines. Those w'ho uphold 
these doctrines must necessarily reject the idea of a social Providence, 
extending to the industrial and political relations of man, and of a so¬ 
cial Order precalculated by God for the regulation of human societies. 

Hence it is that no one has thought of making any serious study 
of Association, which must necessarily be the system, designed by an 
economical Providence. To enter upon this study and pursue it with 
impartiality, we must free ourselves from the prejudices which are ac¬ 
credited by the four speculative sciences, and which are everywhere 
dominant through their influence. These prejudices are truly a kind 
of original sin in the minds of men, beclouding their intellects, and 
can only be dispelled by constant and repeated criticism. 

It is but too true, that for five and twenty centuries since the politi¬ 
cal and moral sciences have been cultivated, they have done nothing for 
the happiness of mankind. They have tended only to increase human 
perversity, to perpetuate indigence, and to reproduce the same evils 
under different forms. After all their fruitless attempts to ameliorate 
the social order, there remains to the authors- of these sciences only 
the conviction of their utter incompetency. The problem of human 
happiness is one which they have been wholly unable to solve. 

Meanwkile a universal restlessness attests that mankind has hot 
attained to the destiny to which Nature would lead it, and this rest¬ 
lessness would seem to presage some great event, which shall radically 
change its social condition. The nations of the earth, harassed by 
misfortunes, and so often deceived by political empirics, still hope for 
1 * 


10 


PRELIMINARY VIEWS, 


a better future, and resemble the invalid who looks for a miraculous 
cure. Nature whispers in the ear of the human race, that for it is re¬ 
served a happiness, the means of attaining which are now unknown, 
and that some marvelous discovery will be made, which will suddenly 
dispel the darkness that now enshrouds the social world. 

The theory of Association will fully justify this hope, by assuring 
to every one that amplitude of means which is the object of universal 
desire. The sciences will have done nothing for social happiness, un¬ 
til they have satisfied the primary want of man, that of wealth, and 
secured to the poorest individual a decent minimum — that is, a com¬ 
fortable subsistence. If the theory of Association were to give us sci¬ 
ence alone, nothing but science, instead of securing us that -wealth 
which is our first Avant, our unanimous desire, it would be but a neAV 
dishonor to human reason. 

As for Civilization, from which at last we are about to escape, so 
far from being the social destiny of man, it is only a transient stage 
— a state of temporary evil -with which globes are afflicted during the 
first ages of their career ; it is for the human race a disease of infancy, 
like teething; but it is a disease which has been prolonged in our 
globe at least twenty centuries beyond its natural term, owing to the 
neglect on the part of the ancient philosophers to study Association 
and Passional Attraction. In a word, the savage, patriarchal, barbaric 
and civilized societies are but so many stages, leading to a higher So¬ 
cial Order, to Social Harmony, which is the industrial destiny of man. 
Out of this order, the efforts of the wisest rulers cannot alleviate in the 
least the miseries of nations. 

It is in vain, then, Philosophers, that you fill volumes with discus¬ 
sions as to the means of attaining social happiness so long as you 
have not extirpated the root of all social evils, namely, incoherent 
Industry, or non-associated labor, Avhich is the very opposite of the 
economic designs of God. 

You complain that Nature withholds from you a knowledge of her 
laws ; but if you have been unable, up to the present time, to dis¬ 
cover them, why do you hesitate to admit the insufficiency of your 
methods, and to invoke a neAV science, a neAv guide ? Either Nature 
does not desire the happiness of man, or your methods are condemned 
by her, since they have been unable to wrest from her the secret of 
which you are in pursuit 

Do we find her frustrating the efforts of the natural philosophers 


PRELIMINARY VIEWS. 


11 


as she does yours ? No; because they study her laws instead of dic¬ 
tating laws to her; while you only study the art of stifling the voice 
of Nature, stifling Attraction which is her interpreter, and the synthesis 
of which leads in every sense to Association. What a contrast between 
your blunders and the achievements of the positive sciences! Every 
day, Philosophers, you add new errors to the errors of the past, 
w hereas we see the physical sciences daily advancing in the path of 
truth, and shedding as much luster upon the present century as your 
baseless visions have cast opprobrium upon the eighteenth. 


I 


II. 


OUTLINE OF AN INTEGRAL STUDY OF NATURE—NEG¬ 
LECT OF EXPLORATION ON THE PART OF THE SCIEN¬ 
TIFIC WORLD. 

In publishing' a discovery which the world was so far from expect¬ 
ing,— namely, the theory of General Destinies, — let me explain why it 
has been missed by the great men of the past, — among others by New¬ 
ton, who discovered one branch of the system of Nature, — and how it 
happens that the prize has fallen to the lot of a man not engaged in 
scientific pursuits. We often see fortune baffle the efforts of genius, 
and accord to chance the most important discoveries; should we be 
surprised, then, that she has acted thus in respect to the great ques¬ 
tion of the mathematical calculation of Destinies ? Besides the favors 
accorded to chance, there are also those granted to audacity. Auda- 
ces fortuna jurat We often see the bold succeed where men of learn¬ 
ing and professional skill fail, and even the latter often owe their suc¬ 
cess to mere accident. Kepler confessed that he was speculating at 
random when he discovered the famous law that the square of the pe¬ 
riodic time is proportional to the cube of the distance. It must be 
admitted, then, that in respect to discoveries, boldness and chance di¬ 
vide the honors with genius and science. Newton, we are told, was 
indebted to a lucky incident, to the fall of an apple, for the discovery 
of the law of gravitation, which Pythagoras had a glimpse of, but 
missed, twenty-five centuries before. This is a sufficient reply to ob¬ 
jections of this nature. Right or wrong, I hold the prize, which has 
escaped the favorites of science. 


Modern philosophers, especially those of France, pretend generally 
to explain the principle of the Unity of System in Nature ; never, how¬ 
ever, was the world farther from any regular study of the subject; 
hence it has not acquired the least idea of the theory of Universal 
Unity, which consists of three branches, to wit: 



STUDY OF NATURE. 


13 


Unity of Man with himself; 

Unity of Man with God; 

Unity of Man with the universe. 

It will be demonstrated in the course of the present work, that the 
philosophers have for three thousand years neglected to study the first 
of these three Unities, — that of Man with himself, and especially with 
his Passions, which, out of the Combined Order, are in a state of gen¬ 
eral discord, and lead to perdition the individual whom they direct. 

This duplicity of action, this dissidence of man with himself, has 
given rise to a science, called Moral Philosophy or Ethics, which con¬ 
siders duplicity of action the essential condition, the immutable destiny 
of man. It teaches that he should resist his passions; that he should 
be at war with them and with himself—a principle which places man 
in a state of war with God, for the passions and instincts come from 
God, who has given them as a guide to man and to all creatures. 

In opposition to this view, certain learned sophisms are urged in 
regard to the intervention of reason, which God, as it is said, has 
given us as a guide and a moderator of the passions, whence it would 
follow: 

1. That God has subjected us to two irreconcilable and conflicting 
guides — Passion and Peason. (Theoretic duplicity.) 

2. That God is unjust toward the ninety-nine hundredths of the 
race, to whom he has not imparted that degree of reason necessary to 
cope with the passions; for the masses in all countries, civilized and 
barbaric, do not reason; as for the savages, they are guided only by 
their passions. (Distributive duplicity.) 

3. That God, in giving us reason as a counterpoise and a regula¬ 
ting agent, has miscalculated its effects; for it is evident that reason is 
powerless even with the hundredth of men who are endowed with it, 
and that the oracles of reason, the greatest intellects, are often the 
greatest slaves to their passions. (Practical duplicity.) 

Thus our theories as to the Unity of Man with himself commence 
by supposing him subject to a threefold duplicity of action — a mon¬ 
strous absurdity, and a threefold insult to the Creator of the passions. 

Nothing in either of these three hypotheses is admissible; they will 
be examined and'fully refuted in another part of the work, where it 
will be demonstrated that all these aberrations of civilized metaphysics 
arise from the neglect to study Passional Attraction, and to determine 
analytically and synthetically its properties and tendencies; by this 


u 


STUDY OF NATURE. 


\ 


study we should have discovered what functions God assigns to pas¬ 
sion and to reason, what equilibria he establishes between them, how 
in the combined Order they would harmonize in all respects, and how 
in the civilized or incoherent Order they must be in a state of con¬ 
tinued discord and antagonism. 

Ignorant as regards the Unity of Man with himself, the world is 
still more ignorant in respect to. the two other Unities—Unity of Man 
with God and the Universe. Is this surprising, when we reflect that 
men have neglected to study the first, the theory of which would have 
furnished the key to the two others? 

Thus there has been, up to the present time, no integral investiga¬ 
tion, and Science has succeeded only in discovering a few fragmentary 
branches of the system of Nature, as, for example, the Newtonian 
theory, a branch of the third Unity. The discovery of this theory 
should have led men of science to follow up the success achieved, and 
to extend the calculation of Attraction from the material to the pas¬ 
sional world, in order to determine the social and domestic organiza¬ 
tion which God has assigned to our passions and to our industrial 
relations. 

It has been vaguely laid down as a principle, that man was made 
for society; but it has not been observed that society may be of two 
orders — the isolated or the associated, the incoherent or the combined. 
The difference between the two is as great as that between truth and 
falsehood, light and darkness, the comet and the planet, the butterfly 
and the caterpillar. 

The age in its presentiments as respects Association, has pursued 
a vacillating course ; it has feared to trust to its inspirations which 
led it to hope for some great discovery. It has conceived the possi¬ 
bility of the associative Order without daring to proceed to the inves¬ 
tigation of the means of realizing it-; it has never thought of specu¬ 
lating upon the following alternative: 

There can exist but two methods for the exercise of Industry: 
namely, the incoherent and fragmentary, or Industry carried on by 
isolated families, as we now see it, or, on the other hand, the associa¬ 
tive method, or Industry carried on by large combinations of persons, 
with fixed rules for the equitable distribution of profits according to 
the capital, labor, and talent of each individual. Which of 
these.two methods is the order intended by God — the incoherent 
or the associated ? To this question there can be but one reply. 


STUDY OF NATURE. 


15 


God, as the Supreme Economist, must have preferred Association, 
which is the guarantee of all economy, and must have devised for its 
organization some method or process, the discovery of which was the 
task of genius. 

If Association is the Divine method, it follows as a necessary con¬ 
sequence that the opposite one — namely, fragmentary and incoherent 
labor—is the diabolic method, and must engender all the evils and 
scourges which are opposed to the spirit of Ood, such as indigence, 
frauds oppression , carnage , etc. 

And since the Societies—the barbaric and civilized—based on 
fragmentary and incoherent labor, perpetuate these evils in despite of 
all the efforts of science, it is evident from this fact that they are the 
nrABOLic method, portae INVERT, the antipodes of the designs of God, 
to which designs man can conform only by discovering and organizing 
the system of associative Industry. 

Starting from this principle, the age should have proposed the in¬ 
vestigation of the associative theory; but neither governments nor 
individuals have thought of doing this. The authors of the speculative 
sciences have not occupied themselves with this problem, as it would, 
have cast discredit upon their theories of fragmentary or civilized 
Industry — the system of cultivation by isolated families. 

At last the discovery is made, and made in all its degrees, but it 
will have this fault in the eyes of the learned world, namely, that of 
casting ridicule upon all previous theories of social organization, and 
of exposing the fallacy of the four sciences, called metaphysics, politics, 
moralism, and political economy. 

It is not very complimentary, I admit, to an age so advanced as 
ours in the physical sciences, to say of it, that in respect to other sci¬ 
ences, it possesses only erroneous opinions, and that of many it has no 
conception whatever, as for example, the four following: 

Industrial Association ; Passional Attraction ; 

Arom^-L Mechanism ; Universal Analogy. 

If the pride of the age is offended by this assertion, let it judge of 
what it has accomplished by a reference to the following Table of the 
various branches of the system of Nature, from which it will appear 
that the civilized mind has traversed hardly a tenth part of the career 
which was open to it. 


16 


STUDY OF NATURE. 


TABLE OF THE FOUR CARDINAL AND PIVOTAL MOVEMENTS. 

4. The Material. The theory which astronomers have given 
of this branch of universal Movement explains effects, but not causes. 
It has made known the laws by which God regulates the movement 
of matter, but it remains silent upon everything which relates to 
causes. 

3. The Aromal ; or system of distribution of Aromas,* known and 
unknown, operating actively and passively on the animal, vegetable, 
and mineral creations. We have no regular theory of these Aromas, 
nor do we know the causes of the influences which they- exercise, es 
pecially on the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, which are regulated 
by aromal affinities. 

2. The Organic ; or the laws according to which God distributes 
forms, properties, colors, savors, etc., to all substances created, or to be 
created on the different globes. We are ignorant of the causes of the 
distribution of the above attributes in existing creations, and of both 
the effects and causes of distributions which will be made in future 
creations. 

1. The Instinctual; or the laws which regulate the distribution 
of passions and instincts to all creatures of past, present and future 
creations, on the various globes. We are ignorant alike of the distrib¬ 
utive system of instincts, and of the causes which have regulated their 
distribution. 

P. The Social or Passional; that is, the laws according to which 
God has regulated the order and succession of the various social Sys¬ 
tems on all globes. Of this pivotal Movement, our sciences have ex¬ 
plained neither the effects nor the causes; nor have they conceived of 
any means of establishing on our earth the reign of social Unity, which 
implies the harmony of the passions without resort to repressive 
methods. 

It results from this Table, that of five branches, constituting univer¬ 
sal Movement, we are acquainted with but one — the Material— 
which is the least important of the five; and even this has been 
known only since the time of Newton, who has explained effects and 

* By the term Aroma, Fourier designates the imponderable fluids,—-light, heat, 
electricity, magnetism, galvanism, and others which remain to be discovered. They 
constitute a kingdom by themselves, which he calls the aromal. 



STUDY OF NATURE. 17 

not causes — that is to say, but half of the theory of one of the five 
branches. 

A strange oversight on the part of science is, that the existence of 
the third branch of Movement, the Akomal, is hardly suspected, and 
has never been an object of research. It plays nevertheless an im¬ 
portant part in the harmony of the material universe — a harmony 
which men of science, owing to their ignorance of the aromal system, 
have been unable to more than half explain. 

Propose to them problems like the following on aromal equilibrium: 

1. What is the law which regulates the distribution of satellites? 
How is it that Herschel, which is so much smaller than Jupiter, has, 
nevertheless, a more numerous train ? 

2. What is the law which regulates planetary revolutions ? Why 
does Vesta, the smallest of the planets, revolve around no other, not 
even the enormous Jupiter, near which it is placed? 

3. What is the law which regulates the position of planets ? Why 
is Herschel, which is only a fourth the size of Jupiter, four times fur¬ 
ther from the Sun ? In analogy with this distribution, the earth should 
have been located far beyond the orbit of Herschel. 

On these problems, and others of the same kind, which I shall 
bring up in the course of this work, the scientific world is reduced to 
silence, as upon all other questions which relate to causes. 

Their knowledge is limited to the analysis of effects, and in but 
one of the five branches of Movement; that is to say, in the study of 
Nature" and of the system of the universe, but a tenth part of the work 
to be accomplished has been done. Newton, who led the way, began 
with the inferior branch, which the age would have readily perceived, 
had there been prepared a regular programme, an integral plan of 
studies, such as I have just given, the primordeal branch or pivot of 
which should be the study of man, or the analysis and synthesis of 
Passional Attraction. This was the true starting point. 

Newton commenced the study of universal Movement with the last 
and least important of its five branches—the Material. It was none 
the less a great step in advance — a briliant initiative. As a geometer, 
nothing more could have been required of him. But his success in 
the material branch of Movement gave him the right to summon other 
men of science to explore the organic , aromal, instinctual and pas¬ 
sional branches. (The latter I call the pivotal branch, because it is 
the type of the four others.) 


18 


STUDY OF NATURE. 


Newton referred all questions of metaphysics to his friend Clark. 
Might he not have assigned to him the calculation of Passional Attrac¬ 
tion,* which is the primary branch of metaphysics, and called upon him 
or others to proceed to its investigation ? He could have taken the 
ground that the theory of material attraction having led to the discov¬ 
ery of the laws of one branch of the system of Nature, they should 
have consulted the same interpreter—Attraction — in respect to the 
four other branches, remaining to be discovered, and deduced from the 
principle of Unity of System the conclusion, that if the regular calcu¬ 
lation of Material Attraction explains the mechanism of the material har¬ 
monies of the universe, it is just to infer that the regular study of Pas¬ 
sional Attraction, by analysis and synthesis, would determine, in Wee 
manner, the mechanism of passional and social harmony. 

The age has not adopted this course, and despite its high preten¬ 
sions in the matter of abstract calculations, it has not risen to the con¬ 
sideration of those transcendent abstractions which embrace the univer¬ 
sality of the System of Nature. Hence it has made no progress in the 
most urgent of all studies — the integral investigation of the five 
branches of Movement. Partial success, like that of Newton, has not 
yet led to further exploration; the geometers and naturalists, reposing 
on their laurels, have neglected to summon the other classes of savans, 
and remind them of the precept so well expressed, but so little fol- 
fowed, “to explore the system of Nature integrally, and to consider 
nothing done while anything remains to be done,” especially, since of 
the five branches constituting Universal Movement, only the least im¬ 
portant, the material, has been explored. 

When we reflect that inventions the most urgent and the most easy 
to be made, like the stirrup and the carriage-spring, unknown to the 


* The term Passional, as the* reader will perceive, is derived from Passion, as 
material is from matter. By Passional Attraction is to he understood the tendency 
of the Passions, their gravitation to the ends or foci to which they are destined. 
The Passions,—variously called sentiments, affections, instincts, etc.,— are the motor 
forces, the springs of action in man ; they are the parts of a unity or a whole, 
which is the soul or the spiiit. God, in implanting in man these impelling forces, 
must have calculated mathematically their mode of action, their tendencies, and 
their functions. Passional Attraction implies all these ; it is equivalent to the mode 
of action and tendencies of the Passions. As the Passions come from God, this at¬ 
traction expresses or reveals to us the will of God; it is his voice speaking through 
the soul: it is the power which he employs to impel us to fulfill the Destiny he 
has assigned us.—E ditor. 



STUDY OF NATURE. 


19 


Greeks and Romans, were overlooked for thousands of years, though 
within the competency of any one, we are forced to admit (hat there 
reigns on our globe some fatality, some radical defect of method, which 
thwarts all discoveries. Is it heedlessness, or negligence ? poverty of 
genius, or imperfect methods of investigation ? Certainly it is one of 
the four, or possibly they all concur in paralyzing genius. The human 
mind must have been very ill-directed not to have had its attention 
drawn to the most important subject, the discovery of domestic Asso¬ 
ciation, for upon this depended the systematic organization of Industry, 
the securing of universal abundance, and what is still more important, 
the elevation of the world to Social Unity. 

That a discovery is delayed should never be a reason for despair. 
For three thousand years mariners suffered for want of the compass; 
at last this invaluable guide was found. A success so long deferred 
should have called attention to the defects in our methods of scientific 
exploration, and led to the inference, that as the branches of knowledge 
of which we are still deprived may be more numerous than those 
already discovered, measures should be devised for organizing a sys¬ 
tem of general and integral investigation. Without some such system 
we are certain to fail, not only in great discoveries, but even in those 
of minor importance. What a reproach that so trifling a thing as the 
wheelbarrow should not have been invented before the time of Pascal! 
It is almost always accident or chance that supplies the deficiency of 
our methods, which is a proof that the course adopted by our explorers 
is without order or concert. 

Our imperfect methods of study and exploration have cost the mod¬ 
erns very dear. The world should have possessed the theory of Asso¬ 
ciation a hundred years ago, for it is a natural deduction from the 
Newtonian theory of material attraction, and applies to the passional 
or social world his theory of the equilibrium of the material universe. 

Other sciences would have effected the same result, if their authors 
had followed a methodic and integral system of exploration. The Po¬ 
litical Economists, for example, whose special function is the investi¬ 
gation of all problems relating to order and economy in the industrial 
world, should have proposed as their primordial object the study of 
Association. It was the subject the most important to investigate, for 
Association is the basis of all economy. 

We find numerous germs of it even in the present social mechanism, 
from powerful corporations, like the East India Company, to small 


20 


STUDY OF NATURE. 


combinations organized in our villages for carrying on specific branches 
of Industry. We find among the mountaineers of the Jura a combina¬ 
tion of this kind, formed for the manufacture of the cheese called 
Gruycre ; twenty or thirty families take their milk every morning to a 
central depot, and at the end of the season each of them receives its 
part in cheese, obtaining a quantity proportional to the contributions 
of milk as credited on the daily accounts. Thus, on a large scale and 
on a small, we have under our eyes the germs of Association, the 
rough diamond which it was the duty of science to cut and polish. 

The problem was to develop and combine in a general system of 
unity these fragments of Association, which arc scattered among all 
branches of Industry, where they have sprung up by accident and from 
instinct. Science has neglected this task, though none was more urgent. 

An age guilty of such negligence in the details of scientific study 
could not have failed to misconceive the work of integral exploration; 
hence it has neither classified the different branches of the general sys¬ 
tem of Movement, nor the three Unities above mentioned — a classifica¬ 
tion which would 'have demonstrated that both the social and the 
material world are in a state of Duplicity , that is, of conflict with the 
principle of unity.* 

As to the duplicity of the social world, we see each class interested 
in the misfortunes of other classes, and placing everywhere individual 
interests in conflict with the collective. The lawyer, for example, de¬ 
sires dissensions, particularly among the rich, to give rise to expensive 
litigations. The doctor wishes the prevalence of disease; he would be 
ruined if people died without sickness, as would be the lawyer, if all 
disputes were settled by arbitration. The soldier desires a good war 
that will kill off half his comrades, so as to procure him promotion. 
The sexton is interested in deaths, especially among those that will 
secure to him profitable burials. The monopolists want a good famine, 
which shall double and triple the price of grain. The architect, the 


* An analysis of the duplicities which exist in the material world would be lit¬ 
tle understood by the general reader. They may be classed under three heads; 
those relating to the planet, to man, and to nature : 1. Duplicity of the Planet 

by the congelation of its poles, the bituminous infection of its seas, etc. 2. Dupli¬ 
city of Man, by negroism. or blackening in the sun, etc. 3. Duplicity of Nature, 
by the schism between most of the natural kingdoms and man, — who, among the 
quadrupeds, finds hardly a twentieth of service"to him; among the birds, less than 
a hundredth, and of insects, less than a thousandth. This subject will be treated 
in another place. 



STUDY OF NATURE. 21 

mason, the carpenter want good fires that will burn down a hundred 
houses and give activity to their business. 

In fine, the Civilized Social Order is an absurd mechanism, the 
parts of which are in conflict with the whole and with each other. 
The folly of such a system cannot be appreciated till after a study of 
the Combined Order, in which interests are associated, and in which 
every one desires the good of the whole, as the only guarantee of the 
good of the individual. 

The Civilized Order, on the contrary, while advocating unity of 
action, sanctions political and moral theories, the whole tendency of 
which is to uphold universal duplicity of action. It is admitted, how¬ 
ever, that we should aim at unity, the means of realizing which are 
entirely unknown; they are to be found only in Association, with 
which science has never occupied itself, and out of which the social 
world falls necessarily into that labyrinth of duplicity and misery, the 
aspect of which caused' Rousseau to exclaim : “These beings whom 
we see around us are not men; there must be some perversion, the 
cause of which we cannot penetrate.” Nothing is more true, and the 
human race is, in the language of Christ, “a generation of vipers,” 
a demoniac breed, so long as the true and unitary order of society— 
Association, which is the Destiny of man — remains undiscovered, and 
unorganized. To discover it, it was necessary that men of science, 
having first analyzed existing social evils, should have proceeded to 
the investigation of each of the Unities, and especially of Social Unity, 
of which the Societies now existing on the earth are evidently the an¬ 
tipodes: first, by:their antagonism one with another, and second, by 
the conflict of action that exists in all the departments and interests 
of each. 

The theory of Association being inseparable from that of the Unity 
of the Universe, it will be necessary to treat briefly of the three 
branches of Unity, which I shall do in future volumes, in order that 
my calculations may not be chargeable with incompleteness. 

As for the Unity of Man with himself, that is with bis Passions, it 
is the special object of this work ; I shall here treat it in its applica¬ 
tion to internal or domestic relations. Its complete theory, embracing 
commercial and other external relations, will be treated hereaflor. 


See Note I Appendix ; page 165. 



III. 


DUALITY OF SOCIAL DESTINY —SOCIAL INFANCY OF THE 

HUMAN RACE. 


In studying the problem of social development and progress, we 
must rise to the conception that the Human Race, considered as a 
whole, must pass, like the individual, through a regular career, subject 
to the four phases of Infancy, Youth, Manhood, and Old Age ; I shall 
show that, it is now in the first of these phases. 

The social Infancy of the Race is much shorter in proportion than 
that of the individual man ; but the effects in both cases are the same; 
that is,, a social world in the phase of Infancy may be compared to a 
child that at the age of six or eight, wholly absorbed in childish sports, 
has not yet any knowledge of the career of manhood. In like manner 
the Human Race on an infant globe, or a globe in the first phase of 
its career, does not rise to the conception of a future state of Har¬ 
mony, in which the social world will pass from indigence to opulence; 
from falseness to truth and justice; from a state of social discord to 
social unity. 

If Association can be demonstrated to be practicable, it is certain 
that the existing societies — the Civilized, Barbaric, and Savage — will 
disappear before it, and that the social world will pass from the phase 
of Infancy to that of Adolescence, — to the essential and happy destiny 
which awaits mankind, — the duration of which is seven times that of 
the ages of social chaos and misfortune. 

I shall endeavor to prepare the mind to conceive the possibility of 
this great social change, which will absorb all party contentions and 
all conflicting interests in the grandeur of new hopes and interests. 
The prospect of such a vast social transformation should rouse the 
minds of men from their present lethargy, from their apathetic resig¬ 
nation to misfortune, and especially from t'he discouragement diffused 
by our moral and political sciences which proclaim the impossibility 
of the reign of social unity and happiness on earth, and assert the 


SOCIAL DESTINY. 


23 


incompetency of human reason to determine our future social destiny. 
If the calculation of future events is beyond the reach of the human 
mind, whence comes that longing common to all mankind to fathom 
the secret of human destiny, at the very mention of which the most 
passive natures experience a thrill of impatience, so impossible is 
it to extirpate from the human heart the desire to penetrate the futuie. 
Why should God, who does nothing without a purpose, have given to 
us this intense longing, if he had not reserved the means of some day 
satisfying it ? At last that day has arrived, and mortals are about to 
rise to the prescience of future events. I shall give, in the chapters on 
Cosmogony, an outline of universal Analogy, which will reveal to us 
these mysteries, and open to us the book of eternal decrees. Philoso¬ 
phy, unable to explain them, would deter us from their research by 
declaring that they are impenetrable. But if Nature is really impene¬ 
trable, as the philosophers assert, why has she permitted Newton to 
explain the fourth branch of her general system? This was an indi¬ 
cation that she would not refuse us a knowledge of the other branches. 
Why, then, have our men of science been so timid in pursuing the se¬ 
crets of Nature, who has encouraged them by allowing a cornel of the 
veil that covers her mysteries to be raised ? With their brilliant para¬ 
doxes, they communicate the scepticism and doubt with which they are 
filled, and persuade the human race that nothing can be discovered 
where their sciences have been unable to discover anything. .. 

Meanwhile, they delude us with the idea that civilized society is 
progressing rapidly, when it is evident that it moves only in a vicious 
circle, and that there can be no great improvement but in the discov¬ 
ery and establishment of a new Social Order, higher in the scale than 
the present; and that human reason, under the influence of existing 
prejudices, is incapable of conceiving and executing any radical good. 
Twenty scientific centuries elapsed before any amelioration was pro¬ 
posed in the condition of the slaves 5 whence it would seem that thou¬ 
sands of years are necessary to suggest to the civilized mind an act 
of justice and social progress. 

Thus our scientific guides are utterly ignorant of the means of pro¬ 
moting the real welfare of mankind. Their efforts at political reforms 
produce only commotions and disasters. The sluggish progress 0 ^ our so¬ 
cieties may be compared to that of the sloth, whose every step is attended 
with a groan; like it, civilization advances with an inconceivable slow¬ 
ness through political storms and revolutions In each generation it 


24 


SOCIAL DESTINY. 


gives birth to new schemes and experiments, which serve only to 
bring disasters upon those who try them. 

At length the end of our social miseries,. the term of the Political 
Infancy of the globe, is at hand. We are on the verge of a great so¬ 
cial transformation, which a universal commotion seems to announce. 
Now, indeed, is the present big with the future, and the excess of hu¬ 
man suffering must bring on the crisis of a new birth. Judging from 
the continual violence of political convulsions, it would seem as if Na¬ 
ture were making an effort to throw off a burden that oppresses her. 
Wars and revolutions devastate every part of the globe. Political 
storms, for a moment lulled, burst forth anew, and party conflicts and 
hatreds are becoming more and more intense, with no hope or pros¬ 
pect of reconciliation; the policy of nations has become more tortuous 
and crafty than ever, and diplomacy is familiar with every variety of 
political turpitude and crime; the revenues of States fall- a prey to the 
vampires of. the stock exchange; Industry, by its monopolies and ex¬ 
cesses, has become a scourge to the laboring classes, who are reduced 
to the fate of Tantalus — starving in the midst of w r ealth and luxury; 
the ambition of colonial possession has opened a new volcano; the 
implacable fury of the negro race threatens to convert whole regions 
of the New World into a vast charnel-house, and avenge the extermi¬ 
nated aborigenes, by the destruction of their conquerors ; commerce, 
with a cannibal cruelty, has refined the atrocities of the slave trade, 
and treads under foot the decrees for its abolition; the mercantile 
spirit has extended the sphere of crime, and at every war carries de¬ 
vastation into both hemispheres; our ships circumnavigate the globe 
only to initiate Barbarians and Savages into our vices and excesses; 
the earth exhibits the spectacle of a frightful chaos of immorality, and 
Civilization is becoming more and more odious as it approaches its end. 

It is at this crisis., when the social world seems to have reached 
the bottom of the abyss, that a fortunate discovery brings to it a guide 
out of the labyrinth — Association, based on the laws of universal har¬ 
mony, which the age, but for its want of real faith in the universality 
of Providence, might have discovered a hundred times over. Let it 
know, and it cannot be too often repeated, that Providence must be¬ 
fore all things have determined upon the plan of a Social Mechanism 
for man, since the social is the most nonle branch of Universal Move¬ 
ment, the direction of which belongs to God alone. 

Instead of comprehending this truth—instead of seeding what were 


SOCIAL DESTINY. 


25 


the designs of God in respect to the organization of human society, 
and by what means he must have revealed them to us, the age has 
rejected every principle which admitted the Universality of Provi¬ 
dence, and a plan of social organization devised by God for man. 
Passional Attraction, the eternal interpreter of his decrees, has been 
defamed; the social world has confided itself to the guidance of hu¬ 
man legislators and philosophers, who have arrogated to themselves 
the highest function of Deity — the direction of the Social Movement. 
To their disgrace, humanity has, under their auspices, bathed itself in 
blood for* twenty-five sophistical centuries, and exhausted the career of 
misery, ignorance and crime. 

But Fortune has at length become propitious; Fate is disarmed, 
and the discovery of the associative theory opens to us the means of 
escape from that social prison called Civilization.* 

On what conditions is this discovery entitled to an impartial exam¬ 
ination, and to a practical trial ? Only so far as it is in unity with 
the universe, with its known harmonies, — the planetary, the mathemat¬ 
ical and the musical, — and is substantiated by the fundamental princi¬ 
ples on which those harmonies are based. If there is unity of system 
between the material and spiritual universe, the equilibrium of the 
passions must be based on the same laws that establish equilibrium in 
the material creation. 

If this condition is fulfilled by the theory of Association which I 
present, there is nothing more urgent than to make a practical trial of 
it, which can be done on a small scale with a hundred families. If 
the age is wise enough to lay aside its prejudices, and make such a 
trial, the whole face of things on this globe will be changed; human¬ 
ity will elevate itself at once from the social abyss in which it' is now 
struggling to a state of happiness and harmony; the change will re¬ 
semble the shifting of the scenes on the stage, where Olympus is made 
to succeed to Pandemonium. We should behold a spectacle w'hich can 


* Let it be borne in mind, that by the term “Civilization” Fourier designates 
the present Social Order as it now is constituted and exists — with its system of 
separate and isolated families; its incoherent Industry ; its tricky and fraudulent 
system of commerce ; its prisons and scaffolds ; its poverty ; its wars and monopo¬ 
lies, its class privileges aud usurpations, etc. He does not speak of Civilization in the 
sense of a progress from a barbaric to a polished state, or as a state of general refine¬ 
ment and culture, but as a Social Organization, which at the bottom is full of false¬ 
ness, wrong and brutality, covered over with a varnish of art and refinement. — Ei>. 

2 




26 


SOCIAL DESTINY. 


be witnessed but once on any globe, namely, the sudden passage from 
a state of social Incoherence to Unity and Harmony. This is the most 
brilliant effect of Movement which can take place in the universe. 
Every year, during this grand metamorphosis, would be worth an age 
of ordinary existence, and would present a succession of events so 
marvelous, that it would be premature to describe them until the 
reader was prepared to conceive of their possibility. 

Disheartened by long-continued misfortunes, bowed down under the 
chains of habit, men have believed that God destined them to a life of 
privations, or at most to a moderate degree of happiness. They will 
be unable to conceive the idea of the blessings that await them, and 
should there be exhibited to them without precaution a picture of the 
Combined Order in all its grandeur, they would reject it as impossible 
and visionary. 

The Combined Order will, from its commencement, be the more 
brilliant from having been so long delayed. Greece might have under¬ 
taken it in the age of Pericles, her industrial and other resources hav¬ 
ing already reached the necessary degree of development. Its organi ¬ 
zation requires the aid of an advanced state of Industry,* which neces¬ 
sarily does not exist on any globe during its early generations, whom 
God for this reason leaves in ignorance of the happy destiny which 
awaits them — a destiny to which no globe can rise during the phase 
of its social infancy. 


* Association cannot be organized without the aid of Industry and the Arts and 
Sciences, for the reason that they offer to man the only true and natural field of 
action, and are the only objects on which the Passions and Faculties can exercise 
their activity legitimately. This truth will not be apprehended at first, but it is in 
fact as simple as if we were to announce that sounds are the true and natural sphere 
of action of the ear or the musical sense, and that musical instruments must be in¬ 
vented and the elements of musical science discovered, before that sense can create 
musical harmony. Association implies, or rather is, the Harmony of the Passions , and 
this harmony cannot be established until the Passions have the proper elements or 
objects on which to operate. In a false or contracted sphere of action, in one un¬ 
suited to them, they are undeveloped p r misdcveloped, thwarted or perverted in their 
action, and engender discord, which destroys all possibility of a harmonious organ¬ 
ization of society. When an intelligent Pace is placed on a planet, it must first 
develope—which it does by instinct and from necessity — the primary elements of 
Industry, Art and Science ; when this work is accomplished, it can then organize, 
them , and employ its activity — that of the Passions — upon them. The result is 
the harmonious organization of its industrial and social relations, which is the 
whole of Association; but this organization is of course impossible until Industry 
is developed, and the Passions — of which the social relations are effects — have a 
congenial field of action. — Editor. 



SOCIAL DESTINY. 


27 


At the present day the resources of art, industry, material elegance 
and refinement, are at least double what they were among the Athe¬ 
nians ; we shall accordingly enter with so much the more splendor 
upon the Combined Order. It is now that we are to reap the fruits 
of the progress made by the physical sciences; hitherto, while multi¬ 
plying the means of wealth and luxury tor the few, they have increased 
the relative privations of the masses, who are destitute even of the ne¬ 
cessaries of life. They seem only to have labored for the happiness of 
the idle-rich and great, while they have aggravated the moral suffer¬ 
ings of the toiling multitude; and this odious result leads to one of 
two conclusions: either the malevolence of Providence towards man, 
or the falseness of Civilization. Rationally we must adopt the second. 
Philosophers, instead of taking this view of the subject, have wholly 
evaded the problem presented by human misery, the extent of which 
should have led them either to suspect Civilization, or to suspect Pro¬ 
vidence. Confounded by the spectacle of so much evil, they adopted 
during the last century a side issue — that of Atheism—which, assuming 
the non-existence of a Deity and the absence of a social Providence, 
turned the attention of that age of innovation and revolution from 
all study of the Divine plan of Social Organization, and authorized the 
philosophers to propose their own capricious and contradictory theories 
for the government of the social world. They hold up as perfect 
the Civilized Order, the aspect of the results of which bewilders 
them nevertheless to the extent of making them doubt the existence 
of God. 

The philosophers are not the only ones at fault in this matter. If 
it is absurd not to believe in God, it is equally absurd to believe in 
him half-way,—to believe that his providence is incomplete; that he 
has neglected to provide for the most urgent of our social wants — that 
of a Social Order which would secure our happiness. When we be¬ 
hold the prodigies of our Industry—as for example, a three-decked 
ship and other marvels which are premature, considering our social 
infancy—can we reasonably suppose that God, who has lavished upon 
us so many noble sciences, would refuse to us a knowledge of the 
most important of all —that of the Social Organization, without which 
all others are comparatively useless? 

Would not God be inconsistent with himself, if, having initiated us 
into so many sublime branches of knowledge, they were only to pro¬ 
duce societies, disgusting by their vices and their crimes — societies, 


28 


SOCIAL DESTINY. 


such as Barbarism and Civilization, from which Humanity is at last 
about to be delivered, and the approaching end of which should be a 
signal of universal joy. 


NOTE ON PHILOSOPHERS AND PHILOSOPHY 

It will be borne in mind that under the title of Philosophers, Fourier desig¬ 
nates the authors of the uncertain or speculative sciences. These sciences are the 
result of the speculation or arbitrary theorizing of human reason, uncontrolled by 
systematic observation, or by the guiding light of Law. Philosophy, then, represents 
that mode of action of the human mind, which we may call the speculative, the im¬ 
aginative,— leading to system-building and the creation of arbitrary theories. It is 
what Auguste Comte designates as the Metaphysical Stage in the intellectual devel¬ 
opment of Humanity. There are two other modes of mental activity, or modes by 
which the mind acquires or seeks to acquire knowledge, that are known and ac¬ 
cepted. The one is Observation and Experiment, and gives rise to the Positive Sci¬ 
ences ; the other is Intuition or the spontaneous conceptions of the soul, and is the 
source of religious ideas and systems. Comte calls the first the Positive, and the 
second the Theological method, although theology is as much the result of the 
speculations of reason as metaphysics, — at least in the advanced stages of its devel¬ 
opment. Strictly speaking, the Theological is the intuitional or religious method, as 
the Metaphysical is the theorizing and speculative, and the Positive the observing 
and classifying. There is a fourth method of investigation and study, which is only 
very partially known, and is not yet reduced to any regular system. It consists m tak¬ 
ing Laws which are universal in their application, as the guide of the human mind 
in its explorations and studies, and in going from the known to the unknown on the 
hypothesis that there must be a correspondence, an equation between the two. As¬ 
tronomy, in which some general Laws have been discovered, especially that of gravi¬ 
tation, offers brilliant examples of the discovery of truth by taking Laws for our 
guide. Newton was led to determine the motion of the moon around the earth by 
the fall of an apple from the tree. The same Law that governs the fall of the ap¬ 
ple, that is, its motion to the earth, which is its center of gravity, determines the 
orbital motion of the moon, which tends in like manner to fall to the earth, which 
is also its center of gravity. He established an equation between the two, and arri¬ 
ved at a vast and important unknown fact by starting from a very simple and known 
fact; the one was easily observed by the senses ; the other was too vast for obser¬ 
vation. When human reason shall have discovered the Laws of Universal Harmony , 
or the Laws as a whole or in their integrality, according to which the Universe is 
governed, it will then have an absolutely sure guide to follow, a perfect method of 
study, an unerring criterion of certainty. To understand this more clearly, we must 
know what Laws are in their essential character or nature. I define Laws to be :— 
The expression or manifestation of the calculations of Reason as to the mode 
of distributing, classifying and arranging the parts or elements that go to make 
up any whole, so as to establish harmony and unity in them. Laws, then, express 
the mode in which elements, forces, etc., are distributed by reason or intelli¬ 
gence Avith a view of producing a certain desired result. Starting from this defini¬ 
tion, and embracing LaAvs in their universality, Ave may say:—The Laws of universal 
Harmony, or LaAvs according to Avliich the Universe is goA'erned, are the expression 
of the calculations of Supreme Wisdom as to the mode of distributing, classifying, 




SOCIAL DESTINY. 


29 


arranging and organizing the infinitely varied elements of which the universe is com¬ 
posed, so as to establish order and harmony in them, and constitute the universe as 
one organic whole. To express the same idea in a more brief and popular manner, 
we may say that, 77 ic. Laws of universal Ilai mony are the manifestation of the Reason 
of God in action in creation. The plan of the universe is thus the expression of his 
thoughts. Human reason, in discovering these Laws, elevates itself to, and identifies 
itself with, the Divine Reason, and has it for its guide. Fourier saw this truth ; he 
sought to discover the Laws of universal Harmony, and did discover them in part. 
He employed them in elaborating the plan of Social Organization which he has 
given to the world. The essential and fundamental parts of his system are deduced 
from the Law's which he discovered ; this takes them out of the sphere of specula¬ 
tion. and bases them on a high authority. Fourier condemns the Philosophers, be¬ 
cause they speculate and theorize, as he holds, without reference to strict observa¬ 
tion or to Law r , and present their speculations to the world as the truth. They have 
misled, he asserts, the human mind; they have filled it with prejudices and with 
erroneous view's as to man, his destiny, and all problems of a social and moral 
character; and he pertinaciously criticises them and their doctrines in order to 
overthrow the errors which they have accredited. In condemning them, it is to be 
understood, however, that he condemns in reality Speculative Reason , which they 
i-epresent, or reason theorizing arbitrarily without subjecting itself to Observation 
and Experience on the one hand, or to Law's on the other. To sum up. we find in 
the intellectual history of Humanity three modes of mental activity, w'hich consti¬ 
tute three eras: 1. The era of Simple Faith, or exercise of the intuitional faculties, 
prior to reasoning and theorizing; this era embraces the whole of Antiquity prior 
to the rise of Greece. 2. The era of Speculation, or exercise of the reason¬ 
ing faculties, not subject to the control of observation and experience; this era 
commenced with the Greek philosophers 3. The era of Observation and Experiment, 
or exercise of the observing faculties, aided and directed by the reasoning ; the hu¬ 
man mind is now in this era. A fourth era is to come : it is the era of Laws, in 
which human reason will follow universal Laws and Principles in discovering truth, 
especially those transcendent truths, which lie beyond the pale of observation, and 
beyond the grasp of unaided reason. Fourier has lifted the veil from this fourth 
era, and shows the path by which advanced minds may enter it. However defect¬ 
ive mav be some of his statements, there remains to him the eternal honor of hav¬ 
ing conceived the possibility of employing the Laws of universal Harmony as the 
absolute Method of Study, and of organizing human Society according to those 
Law's. — Editor. 



FIRST 


PAR T 

ABSTRACT THEORY. 


CHAPTER FIRST. 

GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 

We see Association introduced in some of the minor details of ru¬ 
ral economy, as in the case of the Tillage-ovens of France. A village 
of a hundred families finds that if it were necessary to construct, heat 
and take care of a hundred ovens, the cost in masonry, fuel and labor 
would be ten times that of a collective or common oven ; and that if 
the village consisted of three or four hundred families, the saving by 
such an oven would be twenty-fold. It follows from this, that if Asso¬ 
ciation were applied to all the details of domestic and "agricultural 
avocations, there^would be a saving, on an average, of nine-tenths in 
the general management, besides the product which would result from 
the labor economized and devoted to other functions. 

I do not exaggerate, then, in saying that Association on the small¬ 
est scale, which requires four hundred persons (seventy to eighty fam¬ 
ilies), would yield at least triple the product which is obtained, other 
things being equal, from our present incoherent and fragmentary sys¬ 
tem of Agriculture. 

On the other hand, let us consider the increase of expense and 
the disadvantages which would result from the subdivision of certain 




GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


31 


brandies of Industry now carried on in large establishments. Take 
brewing for instance. ■ If each family brewed its own beer, as in wine¬ 
growing districts it makes its own wine, tlic cost of the beer would be 
at least double that obtained from the brewery—the economies of 
which result irom the extent ol the works, and the brewing for a 
thousand or ten thousand persons. 

Let us add, that in respect to the home-brewed beer, there would 
often be bad brewings and consequent waste, while generally it would 
be of inferior quality, even when the materials used were the same, 
since small establishments cannot combine the knowledge and facilities 
which are found in large ones. 

Certain classes of society with limited means — soldiers for example 
— are compelled to adopt the economies of Association. If they pre¬ 
pared their food separately, if as many meals were cooked as there 
are individuals, instead of a general meal being prepared for the w’hole 
mess, the cost in money and labor would be greatly increased, and at 
three times the expense they would not be so well fed. 

Let a monastery of thirty monks try the experiment of having 
thirty separate kitchens, thirty fires instead of one, and so on, and it 
is certain that they would expend six times as much in provisions, * 
utensils and labor; besides, the fare would be much poorer than 
under the unitary system. 

How is it that our politicians and economists, who are so much 
absorbed in minute calculations and petty savings, have never thought 
of developing these germs of associative economy, of extending to vil¬ 
lages and cities this principle of combination, partial examples of which 
are so common in the present social order. Could not three hundred 
agricultural families be induced to form a joint-stock association, in 
which each member would have a share in the profits in proportion 
to his capital, labor and skill ? No economist has paid the least atten¬ 
tion to this great problem, and yet, how enormous would be the econ¬ 
omies, if, for example, in the place of three hundred granaries exposed 
to rats, weevil, dampness and fires, there w r ere one vast granary, well 
managed, and secured against all such contingencies? 

Let us not be alarmed by apparent obstacles since the problem is 
already solved 5 but let us contemplate in detail some of the immense 
economies of the associative system. Instead of a hundred milkmen 
going to the city, and losing a hundred mornings, they would be re¬ 
placed by three or four milkmen, each with a wagon carrying a hogs- 


32 


GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


head of milk. A hundred gardeners who go with a hundred carts, 
losing a hundred days in the market places and public houses, would 
be replaced by three or four large wagons which as many men could 
manage and attend to. Instead of three hundred kitchens, requiring 
three hundred fires, and employing three hundred cooks, there would 
be but one kitchen with three fires, which ten women could super¬ 
intend. 

We are amazed when we consider the enormous economies which 
would result from these large Associations. Speaking of fuel only, 
which has become so scarce and costly, is it not certain that for the 
purposes of cooking and heating, Association would save seven-eighths 
of the amount now consumed under the incoherent and wasteful sys¬ 
tem that reigns in our isolated households? 

The contrast is not less striking if we compare in imagination the 
agricultural operations of an Association, cultivating a large domain on 
a unitary plan, with operations on the same domain cut up into three 
hundred small farms, subject to the caprices of three hundred families. 
Here one family makes a pasture of a slope destined by Nature for 
the vine; there another sows wheat where grass should be grown ; 
another to avoid purchasing flour, clears a steep hill, the soil of which 
the next season is washed away by the rains; a fourth, to avoid pur¬ 
chasing wine, plants vines on low and damp ground. The three hun¬ 
dred families waste their time and money in surrounding themselves 
with walls and fences, and in lawsuits about boundary lines and tres¬ 
passes ; all refuse to engage in works of common utility, which might 
benefit detested neighbors, and every one opposes his individual inter¬ 
est to that of the' whole. 

Meantime our sages extol the principle of unity of action. Now 
what unity can they find in this fragmentary and incoherent system of 
Industry, this state of social discord? ITow is it that they have failed 
for three thousand years to discover that it is Association, and not iso¬ 
lated Industry, which is the Destiny of Man; and that until the theory 
of Association is discovered and organized that destiny cannot be 
attained. 

To appreciate the soundness of this principle, let us reflect on the 
variety of knowledge requisite for carrying on agriculture, and on the 
impossibility of isolated farmers possessing a twentieth part of the 
means necessary to constitute a perfect agriculturalist. To large capi¬ 
tal should be added the knowledge now possessed by a hundred scien- 


GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


33 


tific men, and the skill and experience possessed by two hundred 
practical farmers. 

In addition, it would be necessary that the man, gifted with all 
this knowledge now distributed among three hundred theorists and 
practical men, should be rendered immortal; for if he died without leav¬ 
ing a successor equal in talent and capacity to himself, we should see 
all his plans fail, and the improvements on his estate go rapidly to 
decay. It is only in Association that the capital and knowledge, which 
I have here supposed united, can be permanently combined. Associa¬ 
tion, then, is the only system which the Creator could have designed; 
for supposing it to be applied to establishments containing, say, fifteen 
hundred inhabitants, it would unite in each all the requisite branches 
of knowledge, which would be perpetuated by corporative transmission. 
A son does not inherit the abilities of his father; but in an association 
of fifteen hundred inhabitants, there would be found persons certain to 
inherit the talents of able members in whose school they had been 
trained. This transmission of talent and knowledge is a property pe¬ 
culiar to the Industrial Series, which I shall describe further on, and 
which will reign in all the details of the Combined Order. 

The more we consider this hypothesis of Association, the more we 
shall be convinced that civilized Industry and the system of isolated 
households are the opposite of human destiny, and that it was neces¬ 
sary to discover the secret of associating large numbers; with small 
numbers it is impossible to realize economies on the vast scale re¬ 
quired, or to combine the various kinds of knowledge and skill 
necessary to the successful prosecution of the various branches of 
Industry. 

I have alluded to the heedlessness of thirty scientific centuries which 
have neglected to seek for-the theory of Association, at last discovered. 
Let us now consider its principal property, that of rendering Indus¬ 
try attractive, — a property by means of which the obstacles which 
have in all time defeated the aims of science, will be surmounted. Up 
to the present day alt attempts on the part of the political and moral 
sciences to make men love labor have failed. We see the hireling 
classes, and, in fact, the whole laboring population inclining more and 
more to indolence; in the cities, we find them making Monday, like 
Sunday, a holiday, and everywhere working without ardor, slug¬ 
gishly and with disgust. To force them to labor, no other means are 
known, after slavery, than the fear of want and starvation; if, how- 


34: 


GERMS OF ASSOCIATION - 


ever, labor is the destiny assigned to us by the Creator, how can we 
believe that he would force us to it by violence, and that he has not 
known how to put in play some more noble motive, some incentive 
capable of transforming labor into pleasure. 

God alone is possessed of the power of distributing Attraction; by 
Attraction alone he moves the universe and all created things; and to 
draw us to productive Industry, he has devised a system of industrial 
attraction, which once organized will connect innumerable pleasures 
with all the functions of agriculture and manufactures. It will invest 
them with charms more seductive than are connected at present with 
our balls, festivals and theatres: that is, in the Combined Order, the 
people will find so much pleasure and excitement in their labors, that 
they will refuse to leave them for these amusements, if proposed during 
the hours allotted to Industry. 

Associative Industry, to exercise so powerful an attraction over the 
masses, must differ in every respect from the repulsive system which 
renders labor so odious in the present Social Order. To make it 
attractive, the seven following conditions must be fulfilled: . 

1. Each laborer must be an associate, receiving a share of the 
profits instead of working for wages. 

2 . Every member — man, woman and child—must be paid accord¬ 
ing to his or her labor, capital and talent. 

3. Industrial occupations must be varied about eight times a day, 
it being impossible to sustain enthusiasm more than an hour and a half 
or two hours in the exercise of any one branch of agriculture or 
manufactures. 

4. All occupations must be prosecuted by Groups of friends, vol¬ 
untarily united, and actively stimulated by emulation and rivalry. 

5. The workshops, fields and gardens must present to the laborer 
the charm of neatness, order and elegance. 

6 . The division of labor must be carried to the utmost extent, in 
order that individuals of both sexes and of all ages may find occupa¬ 
tions perfectly suited to them. 

7. Every member—man, woman and child — must possess fully 
the Right to Labor; in other words, the right to take part at all times 
in such branches of industry as it pleases him or her to select, pro¬ 
vided proof is given of capacity and zeal. 

Pivotal Condition. In this new Order the people must possess 


GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


35 


a guarantee of a Minimum, that is, of a competency sufficient for the 
present and the future, which shall free every individual from all anxi¬ 
ety either for himself or his family. 

All these conditions are found combined in the associative mechan¬ 
ism, of which I now publish the discovery. As I shall prove this 
statement in detail in course of the work, we may now discuss the 
hypothesis of Industrial Attraction, which is one of the results of As¬ 
sociation. I have said above that Attractive Industry will suffice to 
remove all the evils which paralyze the Social world; we may judge 
of this by three examples, from which we may draw conclusions as to 
others. 

1 . It will extirpate Indigence. — The principal cause of indigence 
is idleness and a distaste for labor; but when the people find as much 
charm in Industry as they now find in amusements, idleness will cease 
to exist. Labor, then, will become a pleasure, and its products will 
amply suffice for the extirpation of poverty. 

2. It will prevent civil commotions. — These spring for the most 
part from poverty. Now if Association and Attractive Industry will 
triple the general product of labor, the principal cause of commotions 
and revolutions, which, we repeat, is poverty, will be removed. 

3. It will guarantee to the masses a competency or Minimum. — The 
means of effecting this will be found in the immense product of Asso¬ 
ciation. The property of rendering labor attractive will prevent the 
danger that would exist in the present Order of guaranteeing a sub¬ 
sistence to the poor, which would be only offering a premium to idle¬ 
ness; but there would be no risk in making an advance to the laborer 
sufficient for his support, if it were known that he would produce more 
than he consumed, and that, too, by engaging in labors transformed by 
attraction into pleasures. 

Thus all advantages are secured at once by this principle of Indus¬ 
trial Attraction which is an essential feature of Association; it is the 
result of a method of organization wholly unknown among us, and to 
which I shall give the name of the Unitary Passional Series, or the 
contrasted, rivalized and interlinked Series. This process might have 
been discovered long since, if researches had been made in respect to 
Association. The immense economies of the associative system alone 
should have sufficed to stimulate genius to the investigation. The phi¬ 
losophers, to excuse their neglect of this great problem, object that 


36 


.GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


the idea i.s too beautiful, too grand; that so much perfection was never 
destined for man. u The passions,” they say, u present an insurmount¬ 
able obstacle; it is impossible to unite even three or four families in 
a system of domestic Association,* without disparities of character, 
unreasonable pretentions and petty jealousies at once engendering 
discord, especially among the women, who would not agree together 
for a week.” 

I know it; but it will be seen in the course of the present work, 
that concert and harmony, impossible among a dozen families, would 
be perfectly practicable with a hundred — that is, if they were associ¬ 
ated according to the method I have mentioned — namely, the Series — 
which is a method that can be applied only to large numbers, and not 
to a dozen families. 

Under this new system, the passions and all inequalities of fortune 
and character, far from being impediments in the way of Association, 
would constitute its means of operation ; all contrasts would become 
useful in it. Thus our prejudices present to us as an insuperable 
obstacle what on the contrary is a means of Association : as a proof 
of this, it will be shown in the present Treatise, that it would be im- 
possible to associate a hundred families equal in fortune, and of the 
same or nearly the same tastes and character; the Unitary Passional 
Series is incompatible with equality. As economy can arise only from 
the combination of large numbers, God must have adapted his plan 
of association to such combinations: hence it is, that small associations 
of six, eight or ten families are impracticable; and would be so, even 
if we should attempt to apply to them the Series, which cannot be 
adapted to small numbers. 

Developed out of the Series, the passions are demoniac beings, 
tigers let loose, and it is this which has led the moralists to believe 


* The term Domestic and Agricultural Association, which Fourier so often uses, 
is an abridged expression which covers a wide field of details. By Domestic Associ¬ 
ation is to be understood, first, the association of domestic labors, their organization, 
their unitary and economical prosecution, and the combined architectural arrange¬ 
ments necessary to the domestic life of man ; second, the association of the Social 
Passions or Affections, and of the social relations which grow out of them, and their 
organization so as to produce truth and dignity, politeness and refinement in the in¬ 
tercourse of beings, and, as a consequence, concord and unity. 

By Agricultural Association is to be understood the association of all branches 
of Industry, of which Agriculture is the pivot, and their combined prosecution. It is 
equivalent, in fact, to Industrial Association. — Editor. 



GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


37 


that they are our enemies; on the contrary, it is our false social 
mechanism which is the enemy of the Passions and of Man, since 
it is not adapted to the system of social relations designed for him 
hy God. 

I will now give a preliminary sketch of the method of organization 
which I have defined as the contrasted , rivalized and interlinked Series . 
It is the lever "which moves the whole system of social harmony; its 
discovery opens to Man the way to happiness, of which on all globes it 
is the indispensable condition. The Social world cannot on any planet 
attain to Unity or arrive at a happy Destiny, till it has discovered and 
applied the law of the Series, the search for which was the essential 
task of genius. The other sciences, even the most exact, — such as 
mathematics, — are comparatively useless branches of knowledge to us, 
so long as we are ignorant of the science of Association, which will 
lead to wealth, happiness and social unity. 

Let us give a very succinct idea of the Series, and, if possible, 
explain in a few pages a subject, which, properly described, would 
require an elaborate treatise. 

.THE PASSIONAL SERIES. 

The Series of Groups is the method adopted by God in the distri¬ 
bution of the kingdoms of Nature and of all created things. Natural¬ 
ists, in their theories and classifications, have followed this system of 
distribution unanimously; they could not have departed from it with¬ 
out conflicting with Nature and falling into confusion. 

If the Passions and characters of man were not subject, like the 
material kingdoms, to distribution in Series of Groups, man would be 
out of unity with the universe,; there would be duplicity of sys¬ 
tem in creation, and incoherence between the material and the pas¬ 
sional worlds. If man would attain to Social Unity, he should seek for 
the means in the serial order, to which God has subjected all Nature. 

A passional Series is an affiliation, a union of several Groups, each 
animated by some taste, inclination or shade of passion. The Series 
represents the species, of which the Groups are the varieties. 
Twenty Groups, for example, cultivating twenty kinds of roses, con¬ 
stitute a Series of rose-growers: the Series embraces the species; the 
Groups cultivating the white rose, the yellow rose, the moss-rose, etc., 
are the varieties. 

Again : twelve Groups are engaged in the cultivation of twelve dif- 


38 


GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


ferent flowers; the tulip, for example, is cultivated by one Group, the 
daffodil by another, the dahlia by a third, etc. These twelve Groups 
united constitute’ a Series of Florists, whose collective or generic func¬ 
tion is the cultivation of flowers, which are distributed according to a 
scale of tastes, each Group cultivating the species of flower for which 
it has a special taste or attraction. The Groups would be divided into 
sub-groups which would cultivate different varieties of the flower with 
which each principal Group was occupied. 

Tastes limited to a single individual are not admissible in the Se¬ 
rial organization. Three persons, A, B, C, admiring three varieties 
of a species of pear, would form only a graduated dissonance, not 
adapted to serial accords, which require a number of Groups distrib¬ 
uted in an ascending and descending order. 

A regular Group, in order to be susceptible of equilibrated or bal¬ 
anced rivalries, should have from seven to nine members at least. In 
the Series, then, we cannot base our calculations upon isolated indi¬ 
viduals. Twelve men cultivating twelve different fruits, could not fur¬ 
nish the conditions necessary for the rivalries of a Series ; the proof 
of this will be found in the regular Treatise; meanwhile it should be 
borne in mind, that the term Meries signifies always a collection or 
affiliation of Groups, and never of individuals; thus the individuals 
above mentioned, A, B, C, could not form a Series. 

If, instead of three, we suppose thirty, namely, eight of the taste 
of A, ten of the taste of B, twelve of the taste of C, they would form 
a Series, that is, an affiliation of Groups, graduated and contrasted in 
their tastes. Their concerts and dissonances would create the incen¬ 
tives necessary to carry the cultivation of the pear to perfection. 

The Series have always in view a useful end, such as the increase 
of wealth or the perfection of Industry, even when they are engaged 
in agreeable functions like that of music. 

A Series cannot be organized with less than three Groups, for it 
requires a middle term to hold the balance between the two contrasted 
extreme terms. Equilibrium may also be well established with four 
Groups, the properties and relations of which correspond to those of 
a geometrical proportion. 

When the groups of a Series are more numerous, they should be 
divided into three bodies, forming a center and two wings; or into 
four bodies, forming a quadrille. In each body or corps of Groups, the 
varieties which are closely allied and homogeneous are united. 


GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


39 


The Combined Order must thus employ and develope in a regular 
and graduated scale all varieties of taste and character; it forms 
Groups of each variety without deciding on the preference to which 
any particular taste is entitled. All are good, and all have their use, 
provided a Series can be formed of them, regularly distributed in an 
ascending and descending order, supported at the two extremes by 
Groups of transition or of a mixed character. When a Series is 
arranged in this manner, according to the methods which will be ex¬ 
plained in the body of the Treatise, each of its Groups, were they a 
hundred in number, would coftperate harmoniously with all the others, 
like the cogs of a wheel which are all useful, provided they interlock 
in their turn. 

The calculation of the Series will establish a principle very flatter¬ 
ing to all characters, for it will demonstrate that all tastes which are 
not injurious or annoying to others, have a valuable function in the 
Combined Order, and will become useful there as soon as they are 
developed in Series — that is, according to’ a scale of graduated shades 
of taste, giving rise to as many Groups. 

The whole theory of Association is based, then, on the art of form¬ 
ing and organizing Passional Series. As soon as this art has been dis¬ 
covered on a globe, it can at once establish Social Unity, and attain 
to individual and collective happiness; it is, therefore, the most impor¬ 
tant of all studies. 

The Series must be contrasted , rivalized and interlocked. A Series, 
failing to fulfill these conditions, could not perform its functions in the 
mechanism of Social Harmony. 

A Series must be contrasted — that is, its Groups must be dis¬ 
tributed or arranged in an ascending and descending order; thus, if 
we would form a Series of a hundred individuals classed according to 
age, we should distribute them as follows: 

Ascending Wing, — Groups of children and youths. 

Center of the Series, — Groups of adults. 

Descending Wing, — Groups of aged persons. 

The same method of distribution should be followed in classifying 
Series of passions and of characters. 

This method, by bringing out contrasts, produces enthusiasm in the 
various Groups; each becomes impassioned for the occupation in 
which it is engaged, and for the special taste which predominates in 
it, as also for the contrast corresponding to it in the scale ; each group 


40 


GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


criticises the branch of industry or the taste of the contiguous groups 
in the Series, with which it is in rivalry. 

From this system of progressive or graduated classification, spring 
sympathies and alliances between groups properly contrasted in tastes 
and pursuits, and antipathies or dissidences between contiguous groups, 
or groups with tastes nearly alike. 

The Series has as much need of discords as of accords ; it should 
be stimulated by numerous rival pretensions which will give rise to 
party alliances and become a spur to emulation. Without contrasts, it 
would be impossible to form leagues between the Groups and excite 
enthusiasm; the Series would be without ardor in its labors, and its 
products would be inferior in quality and in quantity. 

The second necessary condition is to create emulation in the Series 
and establish active rivalry between its groups; as this effect arises 
from the regularity of contrasts, and a graduated distribution of shades 
or varieties, it may be said that this second condition is fulfilled con¬ 
jointly with the first, except in what relates to the means of creating 
emulation, of which it is not yet time to speak. 

The third condition to be fulfilled is to connect or interlink the 
Series; this can be effected only by the groups frequently changing 
their functions, say every hour and a half or at the most every two 
hours; for example, a man may be employed 

At 5 in the morning in a Group of shepherds. 

At 7 in a Group of ploughmen. 

At 9 in a Group of gardeners. 

The term of two hours is the longest admissible in passional har¬ 
mony, it being impossible to sustain enthusiasm for a longer period ; 
if the labor is unattractive in itself, the term should be reduced to 
one hour. 

In the example of alternation just given, the three Series of shep¬ 
herds, ploughmen and gardeners become interlocked by the process of 
reciprocal interchange of members. It is not necessary that this inter¬ 
change should be general; that twenty men engaged in tending flocks 
from five to seven should, the whole twenty, join the ploughmen from 
seven to half-past eight; all that is necessary is, that each Series fur¬ 
nish the others with several members taken from its different Groups, 
in order that the Groups may be interlinked, and ties be established 
between them by the members alternating from one to the other. 

A Series formed and operating isolatedly would be of no use, and 


GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


41 


could perform no functions of a harmonic character. Nothing would 
he easier than to organize in a large city one or more industrial Se¬ 
ries engaged in the culture of flowers, fruits, etc., or in some branch 
of art or science; but such a Series would be completely useless. At 
least fifty Series are necessary to fulfill the third condition, that of con¬ 
necting or interlinking; it is for this reason that the experiment of 
Association cannot be made with a small number, as for example with 
twenty families or a hundred individuals, of whom it would be impos¬ 
sible to form fifty Series composed of regularly graduated groups, dis¬ 
tributed in an ascending and descending order. At least four hundred 
persons — men, women and children — would be necessary to organize 
regularly fifty Series, which is the number required for simple Associ¬ 
ation or Association on a reduced scale; to organize compound Asso¬ 
ciation or Association on a full scale, at least four hundred Series, 
requiring fifteen or sixteen hundred persons, are necessary. 

An apparent contradiction will be observed in this calculation of 

1500 or 1600 persons to form 400 Series, — and 

400 persons to form 50 Series. 

It will be thought that the four hundred persons should furnish a 
hundred Series. This estimate would be simple and false. The calcu¬ 
lation should be compound , that is to say, in the ratio of the number 
of individuals, and in the ratio of the combinations they admit of. 
Now as the smaller number is less favorable to combinations, it should not 
be thought strange that I estimate at fifty instead of a hundred, the num¬ 
ber of Series which could be formed with the four hundred persons. 

In the Combined Order, the profits increase in the ratio of the 
number of Series which can be organized with a given number of per¬ 
sons ; hence, simple Association yields hardly half the profits which 
would result from compound Association. 

It will be thought that the experimental Association should be of 
the compound order; this would certainly be desirable, but various 
considerations oblige me to base my calculations on the simple order, 
though, as I have said, it is much less brilliant and productive. 

It has appeared to me necessary to give, at the outset, this slight 
sketch of the Passional Series. In order to simplify the study, I have 
adopted the progressive method, and commenced with a lesson limited 
to a few pages. I shall return to the subject in a dissertation occupy¬ 
ing several chapters, after which it will be treated fully in the body 
of the work. 


42 


GERMS OF ASSOCIATION. 


As all the operations of Association are conducted by Series of 
Groups, our only study will be the organization of the Series, their 
distribution, their rivalries, their equilibria, etc. The argument of the 
present work is, therefore, contained in the above outline, in which I 
have defined very briefly the main lever of Association. It is the only 
system adapted to the requirements of the Passions; the only one by 
which Industry can be rendered attractive. 

The necessity of connecting or interlinking the Series, as above 
explained, shows why Association is impracticable with the small num¬ 
ber of ten or twenty families; if economy and profits can result only 
from large numbers and extensive combinations, God must have based 
his calculations on large Associations; and our political theories which 
would base the accord of the Passions on the smallest union possible, 
that of a single family,, are utterly absurd. The isolated or family 
system is a complicated and ruinous one, which connects a thousand 
disgusts with the exercise of Industry. Such an Order is the antipode 
of the designs of God, whose plans require unity of action, practical 
truth in all relations, and, especially, an economical organization of 
labor. The latter can exist only in the Series of Groups, adapted to 
the different tastes and attractions, and alternating industrial pursuits 
so as to prevent apathy and indifference. 

It was in truth an intricate problem, that of associating individuals 
of different characters and degrees of fortune, and remunerating them 
according to their capital, labor and talent ;* but intricate or not, it 
was the primary problem for genius to solve. 


* By talent is to be understood natural Capacity and acquired Skill. 



CHAPTER SECOND. 


GENERAL VIEW OF THE SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN —EX¬ 
ISTING PREJUDICES ON THE SUBJECT. 

Every great discovery, when first announced and judged by what 
is already known, appears to be either impracticable or absurd. The 
inventor of gunpowder, when lie first explained its results, was doubt¬ 
less listened to with incredulity, and charged with being an arrant vis- 
ionary. Nevertheless, what is better established at the present day 
than the astonishing effects of this discovery ? 

It will appear, I confess, an improbable statement when I announce 
that the means have been discovered of associating three hundred fam¬ 
ilies of different degrees of fortune, and remunerating each individual — 
man, woman and child — according to his or her Labor, Capital and 
Talent. More than one person will think it facetious to say to the au¬ 
thor : u Let him try to associate even three families, to unite under 
the same roof three households, establish combination in their pur¬ 
chases and expenses, with harmony of feeling and perfect agreement 
as to the exercise of authority, and when he shall have thus succeeded 
in associating three households, it may then be believed that he will 
succeed with thirty, or with three hundred.” 

I have already replied to this objection, which, however, it is well 
to bring up again, as repetition in this matter will often be absolutely 
necessary. I have observed that, as economies can result only frdm 
large associations , God must have adapted his plan of social organiza¬ 
tion to large numbers , and not to three or four families. 

An objection more sensible in appearance, and which it will often 
be necessary to refute, is that relating to social discords. “How,” it 
will be asked, “will it be possible to conciliate the passions, the con¬ 
flicts'of interest, the incompatibilities of character, in a word, the num¬ 
berless disparities which are the sources at present of so much 
discord ? ” 




44 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


It has been shown that I make use of a lever hitherto entirely 
unknown, and the properties of which cannot be judged of till I have 
explained them. The contrasted passional Series operates by these 
very disparities which so much embarrass our political sciences: By its 
action, the passions which now produce so many discords will be 
changed in their development, and become the sources of concord and 
harmony; the greater the passional dissonances and contrasts, the 
better the Series will be graduated, contrasted and interlinked. 

Care should be taken not to raise objections against a system until 
its processes have been explained. We must believe, according to the 
precepts of the philosophers, that Nature is not limited to known means, 
and, according to the dictates of reason, that God, whose providence is 
universal, has not created the passions — the elements of the social 
mechanism—without providing some means for their useful employ¬ 
ment,— means, the discovery of which has been delayed up to the 
present day by our false methods of investigation. The stirrup and 
the carriage spring which any simpleton might have discovered, were 
unknown to Greece and Rome; should we be surprised then, that an 
intricate discovery like that of the Passional Series has escaped mod¬ 
ern science, which has not even searched for it, or suspected its 
existence ? 

The greater the advantages which a discovery promises, the more 
exacting we should be in respect to proofs. If my theory were not in 
accord with the positive sciences, men would be justified in accusing 
me of constructing arbitrary systems, and might claim to modify my 
plan of Association according to their fancy. It will be worthy of 
confidence only so far as it bases the theory of the harmony of the 
passions on other known harmonies of the universe. But to demon¬ 
strate the unity of the passions with the general system of the Uni¬ 
verse, this system must first be understood, which at present it is not, 
though so many writers have pretended to explain it. Hitherto men 
have speculated vaguely on the Unity of the Universe; it is now 
about to be demonstrated by reasoning from the passional world to 
material, guided by the analogy which exists between the two. 

We shall thus have two new sciences to study concurrently, —that 
of Association, and that of the Harmonies of the Universe. This is 
enough to alarm many a reader who will fear that we are about to 
engage him in abstruse studies, which is not the case; for to explain 
the Unity of the Universe, the accord of the material with the pas- 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


45 


sional world, I shall have recourse only to analogies drawn from the 
most interesting objects in the animal and vegetable' kingdoms. 

Let me first dissipate the prejudice which would assign limits to 
the power of God, and to the progressive development ot Nature. It 
would seem, if our sciences may be believed, that the present social 
order, called Civilization, is the ultimate limit of human progress,* that 
it would be impossible for Divine Wisdom to invent a more perfect 
system than this labyrinth of misery and duplicity. There can be no 
greater error. Humanity is destined to organize many happier socie¬ 
ties, and there exists a regular calculation for determining their prop¬ 
erties, and the order of their succession. I will here point out the 
eight first societies that are to exist on the earth, including those which 
are now established. 

TABLE OF THE FIRST PHASE OF SOCIAL MOVEMENT. 

1. PRIMITIVE SOCIETY, called Eden or Terrestrial Paradise; 

Confused Series. Association by instinct and from 
circumstances. 

The finer tribes of South-sea Islanders. 

Savagism, or the Savage state, transition to, and com¬ 
mencement of the subversive societies. 

2%. Tartars and other wandering tribes. 

3. Patriarchalism. 

Circassians, Corsicans, Arabs, Jews. 

4. Barbarism. 

4%. Chinese. 4%. Russians. 

5. Civilization. 

Guarantism, or Semi-Association ; transition to the Har¬ 
monic societies. 

7. SIMPLE ASSOCIATION; commencement of the series. 

8 . COMPOUND DIVERGENT ASSOCIATION. ) C ° i ^ e o ° f rg ™‘ 

9. COMPOUND CONVERGENT ASSOCIATION. \ Series ’ and P as * 

J sional harmony. 

[The 9th Society forms part of the Second Phase of Social Movement.] 

In the four periods numbered 1, 7, 8, 9, which are organized in 
Series, truth and justice predominate, and lead to fortune and consid¬ 
eration, whereas duplicity and injustice would lead to ruin and 
dishonor. 



40 SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 

On the other hand, falseness and injustice must reign in the periods 
2, 3, 4, 5, because in them they lead to wealth and distinction ; this is 
an invitable effect of the system of incoherent and fragmentary Indus¬ 
try, or Industry exercised by uon-associated families. As to truth and 
justice, they lead to wealth and honor only in the Combined Order — 
that is, in the periods organized in unitary Passional Series. 

Of the nine periods indicated in the Table, four only are known to 
us 5 they are the four false or subversive periods. 

2. The Savage. 3. The Patriarchal. 

4. The Barbarian. 5. The Civilized. 

I define them as Subversive Societies, because they are based on 
an inversion of the principles of Unity and Harmony, and are so many 
labyrinths in which the Human Pace gropes its way by instinct to¬ 
wards its Destiny.* During the continuance of these periods, Human- 


* They are the periods during which Humanity is engaged in discovering and 
perfecting Industry, the Arts, Sciences and social Institutions, which are the elements 
of society, and also in perfecting its own nature — physical and moral. During these 
periods, imperfection and evil exist and must exist, for the reason that the social 
Organization is in an immature state. We will illustrate this by reference to two 
primary evils which now reign so generally, namely, Poverty and Ignorance, — tbe 
one material, degrading the body of man ; the other intellectual, degrading the 
mind. Poverty exists because Industry, which is the source of wealth, being like 
other social elements, in an imperfect shite, its product is not sufficient to secure 
an abundance to all. If the annual product of France, for example, were divided 
equally among all its inhabitants, it would give to each about fifteen cents a day; 
that of England, twenty-two or three cents ; and that of the United States, twenty- 
six or eight. With'sums like these, it is impossible to provide a human being with 
all his physical and mental wants, the means of education, etc., especially when 
applied in an anti-economical society like Civilization. As a consequence, Poverty 
must exist, and no form of government, and no degree of sobriety and economy on 
the part of the masses can prevent it. There is but oue remedy : it is to perfect 
and organize Industry, produce more, and establish just laws for the division of 
wealth. As to the second evil, that of Ignorance, it exists for two reasons: first, 
because Poverty prevents the education of the masses; and second, because the 
Sciences being in an imperfect state — the most important even undiscovered — the 
rich and influential classes live intellectually under the dominion of the accred¬ 
ited errors, prejudices and superstitions of their times. This state of relative igno¬ 
rance misleads Humanity, and causes the origin of that mass of erroneous popular 
views and beliefs *as to man, his nature, his destiny, his relation to the universe, 
etc., which is the most unfortunate kind of ignorance. Other evils grow out of 
other imperfect social elements: slavery is a result of Repugnant Labor; all avoid 
it who can, and the powerful enslave the weak or ignorant, and force them to toil 
for them. War is a result of a combination of defective Institutions; and the very 
imperfection of man himself, especially his defective cerebral organization, on which 
depends the mental, is caused by the false social conditions in which he lives. 



SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 47 

ity is reduced to mere dreams as to the primary objects of its desires 
which are 

Proportional Wealth, 

Individual Happiness, 

The Reign of Justice, 

Pivot. Unity of Action. 

Instead of attaining these ends, it has succeeded only in establishing. 
, Relative Poverty, 

Individual Anxiety, 

The Reign of all Vices, 

Pivot. Duplicity of Action. 

The duplicities of action will alone furnish us an immense catalogue 
of social evils, the most striking of which is the conflict of the individ¬ 
ual with the collective interest, and the indifference of every one to 
operations of general good, such as the preservation of forests. 


There is no remedying these evils but in perfecting the social Organization—in es¬ 
tablishing a true and natural system of society. But this is a great work; it requires 
ages to accomplish it. We have seen the human race engaged upon it during four thou¬ 
sand years of authentic history, and it is not yet completed. During this period, it 
lias established successively different forms or systems of society ; Fourier classifies 
them under four general heads, and calls them the Ravage. Patriarchal. Barbarian 
and Civilized.—the names most popular and most generally received. These early 
societies constitute the transitional phase or period in the collective life of Human¬ 
ity, during which it is engaged in developing and perfecting the Social Organism. 
As incoherence, discord and evil must necessarily exist in them, the reason for which 
we have given. — namely, the immature and imperfect state of social institutions — 
Fourier designates them by the name of Subversive Societies. He thus distinguishes 
them from the Harmonic Societies, which are to follow the transitional period or the 
era of the subversive societies, and are to reign during the major part of the life of 
Humanity on the planet. 

There is another point in Fourier's classification of societies which we will 
briefly explain. So far as we know from historical evidence, the human race com¬ 
menced its social career with the Savage or Nomadic state — that is, a state without 
industry, art or science. But, according to Fourier, prior to this form of society there 
existed in the earlier social infancy of Humanity, a period of primitive social harmony, 
or at least, of peace, order and the reign of the affections. Man, in coming from the 
hands of Nature, came, he asserts, with a certain degree of perfection. The Savage 
state was a fall, produced by the increase of population and by poverty : that is. the 
population increasing, and industry not being developed, the masses sank into poverty, 
which engendered discord and broke up the primitive society. Other authors think 
that the human race began in a very low state, but little above that of the higher 
order of monkeys, and that it has gradually progressed to its present condition ; it 
is for the Laws that govern the progressive development of beings, of collective 
spiritual beings like Humanity, as well as individual organic beings, to determine 
the truth of these opinions. — Editor. 



48 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


In the above Table I have inserted four transitional or intermedi- 
rte societies, placed at the intervals; they will be sufficient to exer¬ 
cise the reader in classifying mixed or transitional periods. For 
example, Chinese Society, as we know, unites in about equal propor¬ 
tions the characteristics of Barbarism and of Civilization : it has its 
seraglios like the Barbarians, and its tribunals of justice like the Civ- 
ilizees ; it is then a mixed period to be classed between periods 4 and 
5 , of the characteristics of which it partakes about equally. 

The mixed or transitional order is found throughout the whole sys¬ 
tem of Nature. It exists in the social as well as in the material Move¬ 
ment. The transitional periods are to the others what the polypus is 
to the animal and vegetable kingdoms, what the bat is to the order of 
quadrupeds and birds, between which it forms the link. We shall re¬ 
turn to the consideration of these transitional or mixed social periods, 
which it is not yet time to describe. 

Let us confine our attention to the main subject—the distinction of 
the social periods into associated and non-associaled, or the harmonic 
and the subversive, between which we remark the following principal 
contrast, namely: 

1 . That the associated periods, numbered in the Table 1, 7, 8, 9, 
have the property of rendering virtue, justice and truth more honor¬ 
able and advantageous than vice, injustice and fraud; and, as a con¬ 
sequence, of causing virtue to be preferred to vice, and inspiring men 
with a love of practicing truth and justice. 

2. That the non-associated periods, numbered 2, 3. 4, 5, confer 
wealth and honor upon fraud and injustice, disguised under the colors of 
virtue, and, in consequence, lead the immense majority of men to the 
practice of them. They are as a consequence subversive social states, 
social purgatories, in which man, sunk in social darkness, is ignorant 
of the means by which wealth, happiness, truth and unity could be 
established on the earth. 

The comparison between these eight societies, four of which are 
happy and four unhappy, leads us to lay down the principle of Du- 
ility of development in the social Movement, and to distinguish between 
the harmonic, or true and happy order, based on the Series, and the 
subversive, or false and unhappy order, based on the system of isolated 
households and families.- 

In respect to this problem the ancients, guided by instinct, had 
more correct ideas than have the moderns, guided by reason. The 

i 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


49 


latter have not recognized this law of Duality of Movement, The for¬ 
mer admitted two principles in the universe—the one Good, the other 
Evil — as for example, in the Persian mythology, Oromasdcs and Aliri- 
man. They extended this idea to the Social Movement, in which they 
introduced demons acting concurrently with gods. By giving a fur¬ 
ther extension to, and modifying this idea, the different social periods 
would have been divided into harmonic and subversive, or divine and 
demoniac. This would have led to the conclusion that our globe is in 
the subversive periods, under the reign of evil, for we see upon it all 
the effects that would be produced by the influence of evil spirits. The 
social world presents nothing but the spectacle of indigence, fraud, vio¬ 
lence, carnage and other similar results, which are calculated to make 
us doubt the intervention of Providence in human affairs, and lead us 
to conclude that the Social Movement is in the phase ruled by the 
evil principle; this should prompt us to seek for other systems of so¬ 
ciety regulated by the good principle, and productive of the reign of 
universal liberty and peace. 

We see in every sphere of Nature these two classes of effects—the 
harmonic and the subversive. If there is unity in the system of the 
universe, this contrast of development, this duality of action, must 
exist in the social world. 

It required no great effort of genius to suspect an analogy between 
the social and the material Movement, and to conclude that as human 
society might be subject to this double development, means should be 
sought for escaping from the subversive and unhappy periods—the 
Savage, Barbarian, Patriarchal and Civilized — and for establishing the 
harmonic or happy periods — that is, the societies based on the Divine 
law or the Series. 

The sixth period, indicated under the name of Guarantism or 
semi-Association,—which is the transitional period between the'sub¬ 
versive and the harmonic societies, — has not been discovered, though 
active researches have been instinctively made for it. It would pre¬ 
sent a mixture in about equal proportions of truth and falseness. It is 
the object of the dreams of the philosophers, who in their utopias reason 
only of guarantees, counterpoises, balances and equalibria. To rise to 
this degree of social good, this partial reign of truth, it will be neces¬ 
sary to discover the sixth Period, which is higher in the scale than Civil¬ 
ization. The latter is incompatible with any regular guarantees ; hence 
all which men have sought to establish have been vain and illusive. 
3 


50 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


The conclusion to be drawn from the study of the preceding Table 
is that the subversive periods — the societies 2, 3, 4, 5, in which the 
principle of Association is unknown, and Industry is prosecuted on the 
incoherent system byisolated families—are four sinks of vice, four boxes 
of Pandora, spreading over the earth all social calamities, such as pov¬ 
erty, fraud, anxiety, duplicity, etc. 

When we see all these evils springing up in place of the good 
results promised by Science, and becoming aggravated by the antidotes 
applied to them, is it not evident that the human mind is completely 
in the dark on social questions, and that the true principles of human 
society remain to be discovered ? Why does philosophy refuse to ac¬ 
knowledge errors which experience points out? Other sciences are 
more modest; it is admitted in medicine, for example, that there is 
a deficiency of knowledge when diseases like the gout, hydrophobia 
or epilepsy, resist all known modes of treatment. In this case it is 
frankly confessed that the science is behind hand in discoveries, and 
that the antidote remains to be found. 

Let us here point out an inconsistency which has not been re¬ 
marked. On the one hand, prejudice leads us to neglect all study of 
Association under the pretext that it is too perfect for man ; while on 
the other, the evils under which we labor, lead us to invoke one by 
one all the benefits which would flow from Association. Our desires 
in this respect may be reduced to four, which have already been enu¬ 
merated, and which include all the others; they are : 

Proportional Wealth, 

Individual Happiness, 

The Reign of Justice, 

P. Unity of Action. 

I employ the expression, individual happiness , which is the source 
of general happiness, as the latter can only be based on the content¬ 
ment of each individual; until this condition is fulfilled, general hap¬ 
piness cannot exist. 

All the desires expressed by our moral, political and economic sci¬ 
ences are summed up in the four lines of the above Table, which 
.indicate the general results of Association. Now, to wish for these re¬ 
sults, is it not to wish for the cause that can alone produce them? — 
for the associative regime, which no one has thought of exploring. 

Political science, which promises to secure to us the four blessings of 
wealth, happiness, justice, unity, establishes only the four opposite evils. 



SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


51 


1. It promises to enrich nations and individuals ; but instead of 
Ihis, we see that nations are becoming more and more involved in 
debt, and that individuals, whose wants are increased by the progress 
of luxury, find their fortunes too limited, even among the opulent 
classes; while the laboring multitude have not even the necessaries of 
life, and find themselves more liable to be thrown out of employment 
since the progress made in manufactures and the mechanic arts. 

I have already showed that the Civilized Order cannot guarantee 
to the masses the means of a livelihood, because labor being repugnant 
out of Association, the people would give themselves up to idleness the 
moment they were certain of a Minimum or an ample sufficiency of 
all the necessaries of life ; this cannot be secured to them except in 
the Combined Order in which Industry is rendered attractive, so that 
‘each Association can, without risk,'make an advance to the members 
of two-thirds of what they would earn in devoting themselves to con¬ 
genial labors — that is, labors rendered attractive, and transformed into 
pleasures. At the present day, the repugnance for labor seems on the 
increase, and for the reason that the poverty .of the masses is relatively 
greater now than it was at periods when there was less luxury ; there 
is no more frightful misery, for example, than that which is found 
among the English, who hold nevertheless the first rank in Industry. 

2. Political science aims, as it asserts, to elevate the social world 
to happiness; but it is difficult to understand how it can do this when 
it does not even know what constitutes happiness, and has given no 
positive theory of it. 

To understand wherein happiness consists, we must consult the de¬ 
sires of the majority. Now we see the rich leading a life of idle ease, 
or if they engage in Industry, exercising those functions which are 
agreeable, honorable and lucrative. We see, on the other hand, the 
middle class and the common people, who constitute the immense ma¬ 
jority, seeking also to lead this easy life of the rich, and to take part 
with them in the affairs of government. Thus, it is evident that every 
one places happiness in the possession of fortune and leisure, or in the 
exercise of attractive and honorable functions. 

It is necessary, then, if we would elevate the whole people to a state 
of happiness, to transform the repugnant labors to which the great 
majority are now condemned into pleasures, that is, into attractive 
pursuits. 

Such will be the effect of Association organized in Series; it will 


52 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


secure the happiness of the people by offering them the means of wealth 
and pleasure in productive employment, — in agricultural and manu¬ 
facturing labors, which it will render as attractive as any known plea¬ 
sures now are, and which in this Order will be made so enticing as to 
allure to them even the rich and great. 

3. Our moral sciences would establish the reign of virtue, of good 
morals, and the practice of truth and justice. Nothing can be more 
laudable than such aims, but where are the means of accomplishing 
them ? They do not exist in the civilized social order, in which vir¬ 
tue is but little practiced, since truth conduces Jess to fortune than 
falsehood and injustice. We can hope for the reign of virtue, truth 
and justice only in a society which will render them surer avenues to 
success than iniquity, wrong and falsehood. This effect can only take m 
place in the associative Order, which comprises the periods 7, 8, 9, of 
the Table. 

To obtain these important results, it has been supposed that genius 
should invent codes and systems of laws, and the means of enforcing 
them; in the place of these useless levers, a single method will suffice, 
namely, 

Produce by unitary Series. 

Consume by unitary Series. 

Distribute by unitary Series. 

Here is the method, stated in its simplest form, by which Associa¬ 
tion operates; it consists of a single process, attractive in all its de¬ 
tails and workings, and applicable to the three industrial functions, 

; production , consumption, distribution. Everything will be effected by 
this single means, and the only thing to be studied will be the art of 
organizing and developing the Series, and applying them to Industry. 

As regards the guarantee of Labor and a Minimum to which we 
have often referred, the age seems to be retrograding; it will be seen 
in the chapter devoted to the analysis of Commercial errors, that Civ¬ 
ilization is declining towards its fourth phase, which is more false and 
oppressive in its industrial and commercial arrangements, than is the 
third, which now exists. 

The Age, though actively occupied with industrial questions, has 
failed in discovering the means of real progress, that is, in discovering 
intermediary measures between isolated individual industry, exercised 
by families, and combined industry, exercised by associations; the lat¬ 
ter once inaugurated in any country will be everywhere imitated, 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


53 


owing to the immense advantages which it will secure, both as regards 
the increase of wealth and the happiness of the people. 

It is very difficult for a globe to rise at once to the -discovery of 
the Combined Order and the Passional Series. If I have made it, it 
is because I was, from the outset, favored by fortune; but few globes 
accomplish this without feeling their way slowly and making many 
experiments, the successive trial of which consumes centuries. 

I regret that, in publishing my discovery, it is necessary to accom¬ 
modate myself to the commercial spirit of the age, and dwell constantly 
upon the pecuniary advantages of Association as the best means of 
interesting the public mind. In other ages, nobler incentives might 
have been presented, such as the guarantee of the reign of universal 
harmony, of practical truth in all relations, of unity of language, 
weights and measures, of the equilibrium of climate, and many other 
advantages which would result from the Combined Order: but these 
grand results will seem of slight importance to an age absorbed in 
commercial and stock-jobbing operations. 

To gratify its mercantile mania, I might show' that Association with 
its industrial organization, will attract to labor a hundred millions of 
Africans, who, though at the very gates of Europe, are of no commer¬ 
cial advantage to it; it will do this by its property of imparting a 
charm to agricultural and manufacturing Industry,— a property reserved 
to the Combined Order alone, organized in Passional Series. 

The adoption by the African race of productive Industry will ren¬ 
der abundant those tropical products which our habits have rendered 
indispensable ; sugar will then he exchanged, pound for pound, for 
flour; a few years will be sufficient to effect this brilliant operation, 
which by elevating Africa in the social scale will- abolish forever the 
infamous practice of the slave trade, now such a reproach to Civilization. 
Shall I add the perspective of industrial unities, especially the guaran¬ 
tee of a free intercourse on all the seas and continents of the globe, 
facilitated by unity of language ? These advantages, the idea of which 
is so dazzling, the Combined Order will diffuse by the thousand. In 
the divine plan of social organization, in the mechanism which God 
has devised for the industrial concert of the passions, everything is won¬ 
derful. And is it not in the nature of things that a social Order given 
to the world by Divine Wisdom should cause the reign on earth of as 
many blessings as the laws of man — which violate that Order — have 
produced scourges ? 


54 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


If our age were animated by a real faith and hope in God, far 
from doubting the possibility of attaining the immense advantages 
which Association promises, they would look upon them as the prob¬ 
able design of Providence; they would feel that the Supreme Being 
must have reserved for man some lot less humiliating than that of the 
miseries and the degradation of Civilization. But the spirit of the age 
leads the nations to despair of divine aid, and to doubt of a social 
providence; it inclines them to believe that God has left to feeble 
human reason the task of directing the passions, and of organizing hu¬ 
man relations. The world is about to be fully disabused on this point 
by the trial of the associative Order; and though our age is one of 
scepticism, materialism aud of irreligious opinions, I can bid defiance 
to its doubts, and guarantee that after a single experiment of Associa¬ 
tion, the sceptic, the materialist and the indifferent in religious matters 
will be so fully convinced of the existence of a Social Providence, of 
the Divine generosity and of the harmonizability of the passions, that 
we shall see them transformed into fervent adorers of the Deity, hon¬ 
oring that religious spirit which now they disdain. Irreligion is the 
result of the permanent reign of evil on earth, and of the immensity 
of human sufferings, which, to a superficial observer, seem to accuse 
the Creator of incapacity, or of indifference. 

Doubtless if we consider only the four subversive Societies—the 
Savage, Patriarchal, Barbarian and Civilized — we shall feel justified in 
condemning the passions; but to appreciate the wisdom of God who 
created them, we must wait the explanation of the effects which they 
will produce in the harmonic Societies, organized according to the 
Divine law. 

After having read the description of the wealth and harmony which 
Association will produce in these periods, and of the lustre which vir- 
iue, justice and truth will enjoy in them, we shall then be able to 
judge of the solicitude of God for the happiness of mankind, and of 
the incredible thoughtlessness of the scientific world in having neg¬ 
lected for so many centuries to make researches for some other soci¬ 
eties than the four subversive ones in which the human race has 
hitherto vegetated. Simple Association might have been organized as 
early as the time of Pericles, and even in ancient Egypt; how much 
bloodshed and misery this delay in social studies has cost the world, 
especially during the present century with its terrible revolutions and 
devastating wars! 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


55 


It is natural that a generation which has suffered so much from 
political errors and failures, should be very distrustful as to any new 
theories: hence I propose a practical trial of Association on a small 
scale, limited to four hundred persons, and I insist on the difference 
between such an experiment. and those which from the very outset 
commence by convulsing a whole empire. If modern nations have 
suffered so much from Avars, revolutions and civil commotions, it is 
because our political sciences have not been restricted to local experi¬ 
ments. Since the time of Descartes, experience has been extolled as 
the only guide ; hoAV is it that men who recommend it in all cases 
where innovations are proposed, do not apply it to their social and 
political theories? This policy of a local practical experiment is the 
course which would be followed in testing Association, from Avhich 
in consequence no danger need be apprehended. The trial might be 
limited to a small nucleus of sixty or eighty agricultural families. No 
confidence need be placed in the theory till it has been fully sanctioned 
by a practical trial: in other words, till after having proved by this 
limited experiment that Association organized in Series would render 
labor attractive, triple the general product of Industry , and establish unity 
of interests , by remunerating each individual in the ratio of his capital, 
labor and talent, and, especially, of providing for the first want of 
man — namely, the certainty of employment and a minimum of support. 

It has been believed for a century past, that the means of improv¬ 
ing the condition of the people were to be found in the theories of 
Political Economy, and its treatises on national wealth; but, could it 
teach the method of increasing the wealth of nations, does it follow 
that it would be any guarantee of individual happiness ? No ; for indi¬ 
vidual happiness depends first of all upon Attractive Industry , without 
which it is impossible to guarantee to the masses either pleasure in 
their labors or a Minimum , that is, the guaranteed certainty of a com¬ 
fortable support; they would, if once guaranteed the meftns of subsist¬ 
ence, abandon Industry. National Avealth, then, if possible, would fail 
entirely of securing social and individual happiness; there would still 
remain two problems to be solved: 

1. That of rendering Industry attractive ; without pleasure in his 
occupations, the laborer is miserable ; he envies the rich who can live 
comfortably without being forced to repugnant toil. 

2. The establishment of distributive justice in Industry, that is, a 
disfribution of profits according to capital, labor and talent. This con- 


56 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


dition can be fulfilled only in the Combined Order, operating by 
Series. 

Considering that the above problems are intimately connected, and 
that their solution depends exclusively upon the organization of the 
Series which has.not been discovered by political Economy, it is evi¬ 
dent that this science is far from having fulfilled its promises of elevat¬ 
ing the social world to happiness; in fact, it has occupied itself only 
with the first of the three problems, that of national "wealth; and even 
in this it has shamefully failed, as is shown by the legions of beggars 
who abound in the most opulent nations; as, for instance, England. 

The achievements of our speculative sciences — politics, political 
economy, etc.—may be summed up in the following table : 

TABLE OF THE NINE PERMANENT SCOURGES INCIDENT TO THE SUBVER¬ 
SIVE SOCIAL PERIODS. 

1. Indigence, 

2. Fraud, 

3. Oppression, 

4. Carnage, 

5. Climatic Derangement, 

6. Diseases artificially engendered — like the Plague, 

Cholera, etc., 

7. Circle of Error, 


Universal Selfishness, # 
Duplicity of Social Action. 



Each of these scourges includes by implication many others; every 
social evil may be referred to some one of them. National debts, for 
example, are included under the head of Indigence, for they are a 
result of general poverty; stock-gambling and speculation are included 
under the head of Fraud; usury and monopoly under that of Oppres¬ 
sion ; the congelation of the polar regions and the obstruction of the 
northern seas under that of Climatic Derangement; the destruction of 
forests, one of the causes of climatic derangement, comes under the 
head of Circle of Error, for it is an evil resulting from incoherent and 
disordered cultivation. 

The philosophers, ashamed of these disgraceful results which are 
constantly reproduced in the civilized social Order, propose as the only 
remedy political innovations ; in place of really useful measures, they 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


57 


recommend continually the same old experiments, which have produced 
nothing but the three social Furies, called Civilization, Barbarism and 
Savageism. 

They should have been restricted in their experiments to operations 
really new in social and domestic organization — operations which, 
when tested by experience, would produce the nine benefits opposed 
to the nine radical evils engendered by Civilization. These benefits 
which the Combined Order will secure, are summed up in the follow¬ 
ing Table : 

TABLE OF THE NINE PERMANENT BENEFITS OF THE COMBINED ORDER. 

1. General and Graduated Wealth, 

2. Practical Truth in all Relations, 

3. Effective Guarantees, and real Liberty, 

4. Permanent Peace, 

5. Equilibrium of Climate and Temperature, 

6. Universal sanitary System, 

7. Encouragement for all Discoveries, tested by Practi¬ 

cal Experiments, 

Pivots 5 Collective and Individual Philanthropy 
\ Unity of Social Action. 

Such will be the results of Association. As soon as a practical ex¬ 
periment of it is m$de, even on a small scale, Ave shall see unrolled 
before our eyes the plan of God as to the employment of the passions 
and their tendency to, and concurrence with. Industry and practical 
truth. At this spectacle, human reason will be confounded at having 
doubted the universality of Providence, and at having believed that 
God has created the passions without assigning to them a mechanism 
of social and industrial harmony. On beholding this divine order, this 
concert of graduated inequalities, the champions of the speculative sci¬ 
ences Avill be silenced, and the atheist, even, seized Avith a pious enthu¬ 
siasm, will exclaim in the spirit of Simeon : “ Lord, noAV let thy servant 
depart in peace, for my eyes have seen the masterwork of thy wisdom,— 
the social harmony of the passions,— the way to truth and unity, and 
(he happiness that thou hast prepared for all thy people.” 

The multitude, addressing the scientific leaders of- the Avorld, will 
ask: “You who are the guides and oracles of Nations, who promise 
them prosperity and happiness, Avho claim to have penetrated the depths 
3* 


58 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


of science, how is it that you have not seen that there is a God whose 
providence is universal, that it extends to all things and especially to 
human relations, and that the task of human reason was to seek for 
and determine the Order of social and industrial relations which he 
has prepared for man ? ” 

The spectacle of the wonders which the trial of Association will 
produce, such as 

1. The tripling of the products of Industry, 

2. Industrial Attraction, 

3. Concord of the Passions, 

P. Unity of Action, 

will suffice to transform the rich and great into active' ccoperators, 
eager to take part in the labors necessary to the organization of their 
Associations. Thus the initial experiment will be universally imitated 
with the greatest rapidity. The first realization of the Combined Order 
will produce upon the existing incoherent societies the effect of a pow¬ 
erful absorbent; they will be replaced with inconceivable rapidity, and 
in the course of a few years the entire globe could be organized in 
Association. 

Discoverer of the theory of Association, I find myself in the situa¬ 
tion of a man who, in the age of Augustus, should have invented gun¬ 
powder and the mariner’s compass, but who, instead of hastening to 
communicate his inventions, should have spent twenty years in calcu¬ 
lating their effects. Suppose at the end of these twenty years of study 
he should have presented himself before the ministers of Augustus, 
holding in his hand a cartridge 'and a compass, and have addressed 
them in the following language: £ ‘I can with this substance — powder 
— change the tactics of Alexander and of Caesar; blow the Capitol in 
the air; batter down cities at the distance of a league ; reduce Rome 
at a given signal to a heap of ruins; destroy your legions a thou¬ 
sand yards off, and render the feeblest soldier equal to the strongest. 
With this other instrument—the compass —I can brave storms and 
breakers in the darkest night; direct a ship as safely as in broad day¬ 
light ; and find my way everywhere, though neither land nor sky are 
visible.” 

On hearing such language the grave dignitaries of Rome would 
have treated him as an arrant charlatan, and yet he would have 
promised nothing but what was quite possible, and is known at the 
present day even to children. 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


59 


It is the same with the two theories I announce, namely, Industrial 
Association and Passional Attraction ; these two discoveries, which are 
intimately connected, and neither of which could have been made with¬ 
out the other, place me in a position to promise a host of marvels, the 
mention of the least of which would cause me to be called a vision¬ 
ary ; and yet, ere long, they will seem perfectly natural and will be 
intelligible to the merest child. They will be effected, as I have said, 
by a single process, namely, the Passional Series, substituted in place 
of the present individual and incoherent system, from which the human 
race has reaped only indigence, fraud,' oppression and carnage — a sys-‘ 
tern which, after having been a disgrace to human reason for thirty 
centuries, is about to fall before the social laws devised for man by 
Divine reason. 

To minds exempt from philosophic prejudices, these law's might be 
explained at once and without preamble, but minds imbued with these 
prejudices are averse to the reception of truth ; their preconceived no¬ 
tions must be destroyed before they can be brought to a common sense 
view of Nature and her operations. We may draw an illustration from 
the architect, who finds less trouble in building on an unoccupied field 
than on one covered with the ruins of an old castle, the rubbish of 
which must first be cleared away. The human mind is in an anala- 
gous condition ; it is a ground encumbered with old and worn out 
doctrines and theories, to which philosophy has given birth. Blinded 
by the false views and prejudices which they have engendered, it has 
been accustomed to look upon Nature in a sense contrary to her true 
aim, which is harmony and unity based on duality of development. 

Our political, moral and economical theories have inculcated opin¬ 
ions wholly opposed to the principle of Unity; they have accustomed 
men to believe : 

1. That the Divine nature, the Universe, and the system of Move¬ 
ment are simple, not compound — that there is monality , and not dual¬ 
ity in their action and development. 

2. That' Providence is limited and partial, instead of universal; and 
that it" does not embrace the direction of the Social Movement. 

3. That Man is a simple being, excluded from unity with the uni¬ 
verse, and from Divine guidance in his social relations. 

4. That the social compact must be based on selfishness and 
duplicity, and that reciprocal guarantees of truth and justice are 
impossible. 


60 


SOCIAL DESTINY OF MAN. 


5. That our passions are our enemies; which implies that God 
who created them is also our enemy. 

H. That reason suffices of itself alone to repress and direct the pas¬ 
sions, Avhile it is evident, as experience demonstrates, that it cannot 
repress or direct even those of the men who claim to be its oracles. 

7. That the reign of truth and justice is to be secured by smother¬ 
ing our desires and attractions, by disregarding riches and worldly inter¬ 
ests, and by other similar means, and not by new discoveries in social 
Organization which would secure the harmonious development of man’s 
nature, and the reign of universal abundance. 

P. That Nature is limited, as respects Social Organization, to the 
societies already established, namely, the Civilized, Barbarian and Sav¬ 
age, which implies that the passions are susceptible of but one mode 
of development — the Subversive—and that the nine scourges, already 
enumerated, are permanent and irremediable. 

We might fill pages with absurd opinions similar to these, to which 
might be added the modern doctrines of materialism and atheism, which 
did not exist in antiquity. It is evident, then, that human reason, not¬ 
withstanding its boasts of progress, is on all great social questions still 
sunk in darkness and ignorance. “ When things have come to this 
point,” says Condillac, ‘-when errors have thus accumulated, there is 
but one means of restoring order in the domain of thought, and that 
is to forget all that we have learned, go back to the origin of our 
ideas, to first principles, and, as Bacon says, conduct the whole work 
of the understanding anew. This means is difficult of application in 
proportion as men believe themselves learned.” 

Conformably to the views of Condillac and Bacon, I shall return 
frequently to the attack of dominant errors. 1 cannot too often repeat, 
however, that in criticising the controversial sciences, I do not criticise 
their authors; to speculate in opinions and theories is no more repre¬ 
hensible than to speculate in any tolerated branch of trade. The 
blame falls on Civilization, which does not employ genius properly by 
encouraging useful discoveries, and then on the prejudice which would 
teach us that this disastrous order is the ultimate destiny of man, and 
that God was incapable of inventing anything better for organizing 
human relations. How can an age which lays claim to an enlightened 
religious faith, adopt ideas so derogatory to the wisdom and goodness 
of the Creator 2 


CHAPTER THIRD. 


OMISSION OF THE STUDY OF MAN —NECESSITY OF REPAIR¬ 
ING THIS NEGLECT. 

It has been recognized by celebrated philosophers, that there re¬ 
mained for genius some great mystery to penetrate, that it had failed 
in the study of Nature, and missed the paths that would have led to 
individual and collective happiness. In other ages, men of science have 
deplored this failure, and looked forward to a time when the human 
race should arrive at a happier destiny than that of Civilization. We 
find this prognostication in the pages of the most renowned authors, 
from Socrates, who augured that some day the light would descend 
upon the earth , to Voltaire, who impatient to see it. descend, exclaimed, 

“How dark a night still veilB all Nature’s face!” 

Plato and other Greek philosophers expressed the same idea in 
other terms. Their utopias were an indirect accusation of the genius 
of their age, which could not conceive of anything beyond the civilized 
regime. These writers are regarded as oracles of wisdom, and yet 
from Socrates to Rousseau we find the most eminent of them deploring 
the insufficiency of their theories. They admit the falseness of the so¬ 
cial state and the imperfection of our political sciences. Montesquieu 
thinks that “ the social world is affected by a chronic debility, by an 
internal malady, by a hidden virus,” and Rousseau, speaking of the 
Civilizees, says: “These beings whom we see around us are not men; 
there is some perversion, the cause of which we cannot penetrate.” 

What is the error that has been committed in the field of scientific 
exploration ? What branch of study has been overlooked or neglected? 
There are several, and especially the branch which is supposed to have 
been the most fully investigated: I mean the Study op Man. Sci¬ 
ence has failed in this entirely while the subject is supposed to have 
been completely exhausted. It has occupied itself only with the mere 


62 


THE STUDY OF MAN. 


surface of the question, with Ideology or the theory of the origin of 
ideas and other accessory branches, which are utterly useless, so long 
as we are ignorant of the fundamental science, the theory of the 
Passions, or the springs of action of the soul. To understand the 
nature of these forces and their functions, we must enter into the ana¬ 
lytic and synthetic calculation of Passional Attraction; its synthesis 
determines the mechanism of domestic and industrial Association, which 
is the social Destiny of man. 

The idea of a preestablished Destiny for Man, existing in the Di¬ 
vine Mind before his creation, of a predetermined mathematical theory 
of social Organization adapted to the play and action of the Passions, 
will be ridiculed by the world as visionary and absurd. Nevertheless, 
how can we conceive that a Being infinitely wise could have created 
the Passions without having determined upon a plan for their employ¬ 
ment? 

How could God, with the experience of an eternity in creating and 
organizing worlds, have been ignorant that the first collective want of 
their inhabitants is that of a Code for the regulation of their Passions 
and their social relations? 

Left to the direction of our pretended sages, the Passions engender 
scourges which might well lead us to doubt whether they are the work 
of an evil spirit or of the Deity. If we examine successively the laws 
of legislators the most revered — of Solon and of Draco, of Lycurgus 
and of Minos — we shall find that they reproduce constantly the nine 
permanent scourges which result from the subversive action of the Pas¬ 
sions. Must not God have foreseen this shameful result of human 
legislation ? He must have observed its effects in the myriads of globes 
created anterior to our own; he must have known, before creating 
man and giving him Passions, that his reason would be incapable of 
harmonizing them, and that Humanity would require a legislator more 
enlightened than itself. 

As a consequence, God, unless we suppose that his Providence is 
insufficient and limited, and that he is indifferent to our happiness, 
must have composed for us a passional Code, or system of domestic 
and social Organization, applicable to the whole human race, which 
has everywhere the same Passions; and he must have interpreted this 
Code to us in a way which would leave no doubt as to its excellence 
and its origin. 

There exists, then, for man a unitary Destiny,—a Divine social 


THE STUDY OF MAN. 


G3 


Order to be established on the earth for the regulation of the social 
and domestic relations of the human race. The task of Genius was to 
discover it, and, preliminarily to determine upon the method by which 
the investigation should be pursued; this method can be no other 
than the Analytic and Synthetic calculation of Passional Attraction, 
since Attraction is the only known interpreter between God and the 
universe. 

Again: how can we suppose God more inconsiderate than the 
merest novice among men ? When a man collects together materials 
for building; does he neglect to prepare or to have prepared a plan 
for their employment? What should we think of a person who, hav¬ 
ing purchased the stone, brick, framework, etc., for the construction of 
a vast edifice, had no idea what kind of a structure he would erect, 
and confessed that he had collected these materials without having de¬ 
cided how to employ them ? Such a man would be considered insane. 

Such, nevertheless, is the degree of folly which the philosophers 
attribute to God in supposing that he could have created the Passions, 
Attractions, Characters, Instincts and other materials of the social edi¬ 
fice without having determined upon any plan for their employment. 

God, then, according to the philosophers, did not know how to 
frame for man a social Code — must have been obliged to leave to the 
wisdom of the Solons and Dracos the work of determining the domes¬ 
tic and industrial Mechanism of Society, .Common sense revolts at the 
idea of suspecting Divinity of this excess of incapacity. We must 
believe, then, despite the philosophers, that there exists for our social 
relations a preestablished Destiny — a Destiny regulated by Divine Law 
anterior to the creation of our globe, a mechanism of social and indus¬ 
trial Unity, the plan of which human reason should have endeavored to 
discover, instead of playing the part of a Titan and usurping the high¬ 
est function of God, which is the direction of the social or passional 
Movement. 

Of all impieties the worst is the impertinent prejudice which sus¬ 
pects God of having, created Man, the Passions and the elements 
of Society without having determined upon any plan for their organ¬ 
ization. To believe this is to attribute to the Creator a want of 
reason at which even men would blush j it is falling into an irreligion 
worse than atheism; for the atheist, though he denies God, does not 
dishonor him ; he dishonors himself alone by an opinion bordering on 
madness. But our legislators despoil the Supreme Being of his noblest 


THE STUDY OF MAN. 


64 

prerogative; they pretend by implication that God is incompetent in 
legislation. And so he would be if, after the experience acquired dur¬ 
ing a past eternity in the material and passional distribution of worlds, 
he had neglected to provide for the most urgent of their collective 
wants — that of a unitary passional Code, and of a permanent revelation 
of that Code. 

So long as we have not discovered the Divine Code, we do not 
know Man, since we are ignorant of the uses and end assigned by God 
to the motor-forces of the soul — to its Passions, Attractions, etc. — and 
to human societies directed by these forces. 

Now since God must have composed a social Code for the regula¬ 
tion of our Passions and of our domestic, industrial and social rela¬ 
tions, how can we presume that he would wish to conceal it from us 
to whom the knowledge of it is of absolute necessity ? He has not 
concealed a branch of the Laws of Movement, much less important to 
us — that of material Gravitation or Sidereal Harmony; he has initia¬ 
ted us, since Newton, into these mysteries of the equilibrium of the 
Universe, held in previous ages to be impenetrable. Why presume, 
then, that he would refuse to 11 s an initiation into the system he must 
have composed for the mechanism of the Passions and of human soci¬ 
eties—refuse to us the science most important for us to know, most 
essential to our Industrial relations? 

When any branch of knowledge is not reduced to a positive sci¬ 
ence we see existing in its place some chimerical speculation. Before 
experimental chemistry, we had the reign of the alchemists; before 
mathematical astronomy, that of the astrologers—still accredited among 
the common people. Whenever the human mind departs from the ex¬ 
act sciences, it is condemned to fall under the influence of false theo¬ 
ries. Hence it is that our social and political doctrines,' not having 
been reduced to a positive science, have allowed the world to be mis¬ 
led by political and other theorists, who have usurped the direction of 
social affairs, and who give their vague opinions in the place of positive 
principles. They are ignorant that any high social Destiny is reserved 
to man, because they have never sought to discover it in regular studies, 
especially that of the theory of Passional Attraction, which is the 
interpreter of the Divine will as regards that Destiny. 

If an error may last for years with an individual, for a generation 
with a family, for an age with a corporation, may it not according to 
the same ratio hold sway for centuries with the human race, especially 



THE STUDY OF MAN. 


(35 


when it is upheld, as in the present instance, by the learned, who all 
agree in the belief that God has created the passions without precal¬ 
culating their action and framing a social system for their regulation 
and useful employment. 

I have already shown that in committing such an oversight, God 
would have proved himself less intelligent than the weakest of mortals. 
Do I claim too much for Divine Wisdom when I suppose it to be 
equal only to the wisdom of Man ? The philosophers will reply that 
Divine Wisdom is a thousand times superior; but to confound them 
we have only to ask that they grant to God as much wisdom as is 
found among men, as much judgment in the material and social gov¬ 
ernment of worlds, and especially of this world, so justly criticised by 
King Alphonzo, of Castile, who said: “ If God had consulted me in 
respect to the creation of the world, I would have given him some 
good advice.” Doubtless he would have recommended a system which 
would produce the exact opposite of the nine social scourges which we 
see existing upon the earth up to the present time. But are these 
scourges accidental and temporary, or are they essential and irremedi¬ 
able ? Ought we not to presume that a wise Providence must have 
reserved for us a totally different condition, the theory of which should 
have been sought in a regular study of Attraction, which is the sole 
permanent interpreter between God and man ? 

So long as the human mind has not discovered the laws of Social 
Destiny, interpreted by the synthesis of Attraction, the human race 
must vegetate in a state of political ignorance and darkness; the pro¬ 
gress made in some of the positivo sciences, — in astronomy, physics, 
chemistry, etc., — furnish no remedy for human misery. The greater 
the honor due to these sciences for their discoveries, the greater the 
reproach which should fall upon the speculative sciences which have 
never made a single discovery tending to promote human happiness, 
and which, after thirty centuries of correctives and reforms, have left 
all social evils as deeply rooted as ever. 

What have these sciences taught in respect to man and his social 
Destiny ? One of them, Metaphysics,’ is occupied merely with the sur¬ 
face of the question ; it loses itself in abstractions and subtleties rela¬ 
tive to the analysis of ideas, and overlooks the study of the real ques¬ 
tion,— which is that of the functions and uses of the Passions, and the 
laws of passional Attraction. The metaphysicians who claim to have 
analyzed and explained the nature of man, have not in fact taken the 


66 


THE STUDY OF MAN. 


first step in the right direction; they have not analyzed the twelve 
radical Passions of the soul, and their centers or foci of attraction. Is 
it surprising, then, that they have discovered nothing in respect to the 
Destiny to which the passional forces impel us? 

Three other sciences—Politics, Moral Philosophy and Political 
Economy—pretend also to explain the problem of human Destiny. 
Let us analyze their pretensions. 

Politics and Political Economy advocate theories which are totally 
at variance with the Destiny of man, since they recommend him to 
submit passively to the civilized regime, to its system of incoherent 
and repulsive labor, instead of making efforts to attain the true Des¬ 
tiny of the race, which is Association, based on Attractive Industry. 

A fourth philosophical science, called Moral Philosophy, which also 
boasts of making man its study, does exactly the contrary; it studies 
only the means of changing his nature, of repressing those springs of 
action of the soul, called passions or attractions, under the pretext that 
they are vicious, or are not suited to the civilized Order: the real 
problem, on the contrary, was to have sought an issue or outlet from 
Civilization — an Order which is in conflict with the Attractions of man, 
which all tend to social unity, to domestic and industrial Association. 

These four speculative sciences uphold the civilized social Order 
with its isolated family regime, and its incoherent system of Industry, 
without conceiving the possibility of establishing any different social 
mechanism. They wish to perfect this order which they believe to be 
the Destiny of Man, though in all its phases it produces the nine social 
scourges, which we have mentioned,—Indigence, Fraud, Oppression, 
Carnage, Deterioration of Climate, Circle of Error, Universal Selfism, 
and Conflict of the individual with the collective Interest. 

It is the hight of folly to wish to improve a system which is rad¬ 
ically defective in its nature: it is only reproducing the same evils 
under other forms. The real task of political Genius was to seek an 
outlet from Civilization, not to perfect it. 

If the human race had realized under it any degree of happiness, 
if it had extirpated at least a portion of the nine social scourges, there, 
might have been an excuse for upholding and declaring it permanent; 
but should not the permanence of human misery have stimulated 
genius to seek for new social Combinations, and led it to conceive 
that if Humanity has passed through four different forms of society, it 
may be able to discover and establish a fifth, a sixth, a seventh, which 


THE STUDY OF MAN. 


67 


might lead to that social happiness so vainly sought for in Civilization, 
in which out of twenty families taken at random, nineteen are reduced 
to expedients of all kinds to obtain the means of subsistence, while the 
twentieth, envied by the rest, is not satisfied with its lot, and seems to 
live only to awaken in the others the idea of a happiness which it 
does not itself really enjoy. 

When we consider that this state of general privation and suffering 
is the fruit of the false and contradictory social theories and institu¬ 
tions, established or upheld by the speculative sciences, are we not 
justified in condemning them in the most unreserved manner, and of 
| suspecting their authors either of a want of intelligence or a want of 
good faith ? These sciences are called the Speculative , which distin¬ 
guishes them in a very lenient manner from the Positive; they merit 
at least the name of sophistical and delusive, for what other can 
i we give. 

To Metaphysics which, after engendering in modern times the doc¬ 
trines of materialism and atheism, still misleads human reason with its 
controversies on Idiology and kindred subjects, which produce no re¬ 
sult of any value : whereas the study of Passional Attraction, of the 
motor-forces of the soul, which belongs especially to the metaphysicans, 
would have led in a short time to the discovery of a social Order 
adapted to those forces, and of the laws of social and passional 
Harmony. 

To*Politics which, treating of the Rights of Man and claiming to 
explain the means of securing them, has not discovered, and as a con¬ 
sequence, cannot secure the first and most important of his rights — 
namely, the Right to Labor , or the guarantee of regular and remune¬ 
rative employment. The admission of this right would have exposed 
the falseness of our political system, which can neither recognize nor 
satisfy it. 

To Political Economy which, treating of the wealth of Nations and 
the means of obtaining it, has with its false commercial and financial 
theories, taught only the art of doubling the taxes of nations, of de¬ 
vouring the future by national loans, and of enriching stock-jobbers 
and the vampires of finance, while at the same time it has neglected 
all study of Association — the sole basis ‘of economy. 

To Moral Philosophy which, after preaching for so many centuries 
the contempt of riches, has changed its tone, and come at last to toler¬ 
ate, not to say extol, the love of luxury and wealth, the commercial 




08 


THE STUDY OF MAN. 


spirit of the ago, and as a consequence its results,—fraud, bankruptcy, 
usury, monopoly and other effects of civilized Commerce. 

Such are the achievements of the four sophistical sciences which 
now control opinion on all questions relating to human Destiny. 


Note. We will answer briefly an objection which will suggest itself to the 
minds of many persons on reading this chapter. If Divine Wisdom, it will be asked, 
lias precalculated for Man a social Order for the regulation of his social relations, 
how is it that it has not already been established ? The answer is, that Divine 'Wis¬ 
dom prepares all the elements and calculates all the conditions necessary to a true 
system of Society,—one which would secure the reign of social Harmony and uni¬ 
versal happiness,—but leaves to Humanity its part of the work to perform, which is 
to develop, combine and organize them. It has prepared the elements of Industry, 
calculated the action of the Passions and their employment, and adapted them to 
the social Order predestined to exist, but it has left to human intelligence the work 
of a secondary creation — which is the realization of that Order. Man is a creator in 
his sphere, and this constitutes his greatness and elevates him to the rank of an 
independent link in the great chain of intelligent beings, which extends from Human¬ 
ity up through a vast hierarchy of intelligences to the supreme Pivot of the uni¬ 
verse or God. Had the Creator established at once the social system which he pre¬ 
destined for man, it would have been necessary to have provided him with all the 
instrumentalities of Industry, such as tools, implements and machinery ; to have com¬ 
municated to him by some-means—either through revelation or by instinct — a 
knowledge of the arts and sciences; to have built for him even edifices, for all 
these things are necessary to the organization of society. Had the Creator done 
this, he would have violated the following among other fundamental principles of 
universal Movement. He would have, 1st, taken from Man all independent and in¬ 
telligent action, and reduced him to the condition of a creature of instinct like the 
beaver, the bee, the ant; 2d, interfered with the functions delegated to Reason, which 
is given to man to direct him in the work of social organization, and, in fact, ren¬ 
dered Intelligence unnecessary ; 3d, assumed or monopolized the functions delegated 
to the lesser orders of intelligences, and descended to details in the government of 
the universe, which would have destroyed variety in the spiritual creation, and ren¬ 
dered useless the existence of finite intelligences, thus depriving the supreme Pivot 
of intellectual co-operators and associates. Leaving aside these abstract reasons, we 
will explain the problem by a simple aud practical illustration. God designed evidently 
that man should possess a knowledge of the sciences — mathematics, astronomy, etc.; 
he gave him Reason or the means, but left him to acquire the knowledge himself; 
he did not reveal or make it known to him by instinct. He designed in like man¬ 
ner that he should possess and enjoy the arts, such as music and painting; he gave 
him the necessary faculties and prepared all the conditions, but he left him to in¬ 
vent instruments, processes and laws of harmony, and to perfect himself in their use. 
The same law r applies to the social system as a whole. All the elements and con¬ 
ditions of a complete and perfect system of Society have been precalculated and pre¬ 
pared, but to Humanity is left the work of developing, perfecting and organizing them. 
It must, in fact, create a social Organism as the individual man must grow — that is, 
create a physical organism, and study, learn and perfect himself intellectually.— 
Editor. 








CHAPTER FOURTH. 


EXAMINATION OF QUESTIONS WHICH ARE THE SUBJECT OF CONTROVERSY 

IN CIVILIZATION. 

LIBERTY. 

It is in the natural order of things that each social period should 
direct its attention to measures which tend to advance it to the next 
succeeding period ; it is for this reason that Civilization, while occupy¬ 
ing itself but little with the question of Association which would lead to 
social Harmony, is very actively engaged with the questions of Com¬ 
merce and Liberty, which are stepping-stones to the sixth period or 
Guarantism. They are the subjects which especially occupy public 
attention, and on which the speculative sciences exercise their con¬ 
troversies. 

The question relating to Liberty can be elucidated in a few pages, 
though thousands have been devoted to obscuring it: I shall dispose 
of the subject in two chapters. 

After health and fortune, nothing is more precious to man than the 
possession of Liberty, which is of two kinds, Corporeal and Social; 
the latter has never been a subject of study on the part of political 
theorists. 

According to the habit of the speculative sciences of considering 
Nature from a simple or one-sided point of view, the spirit of simplism 
has been exhibited on this subject, and no complete analysis of Lib¬ 
erty, which we shall distinguish into Simple, Compound and Super¬ 
compound, has been made. During more than a thousand years, the 
first even of these liberties/— the material or corporeal—was overlooked : 
it was Christianity which intervened powerfully for the emancipation 
of the slaves, who were deprived of simple or corporeal liberty. Be¬ 
fore the Christian era, the masses of mankind, with the assent of the 
philosophers, were degraded to the condition of beasts of burden, and 
lower still, for as many as twenty thousand slaves have been compelled 
to slaughter each other in the arena to amuse the citizens of Rome, 


70 


LIBERTY. 


who, when they lacked the means of this wholesale slaughter, caused 
hundreds to be butchered singly in gladiatorial combats. Such bloody 
scenes were enacted in a more civic style by the virtuous republicans 
of Sparta, who, to diminish the slave population, selected at one time 
two thousand slaves, and after parading them through the city, crowned 
with flowers, caused them to be massacred in mass. Such for a thou¬ 
sand years were the noble views of the philosophers in respect to ma¬ 
terial and corporeal Liberty. The virtuous republicans applauded these 
massacres, and but for the Christian religion, this state of things might 
have continued. 

Had the oracles of antique wisdom, the Platos and Aristotles, been 
consulted as to the emancipation of the slaves, they would have replied 
with the stale objection, that the thing was impracticable — an objection 
repeated on all occasions at the present day. The enlightened Aris¬ 
totle looked upon slaves so essentially as beasts of burden, as creatures 
hardly human, that be laid it down as a principle, that no virtue is 
suited to a slave. He considered them as so many brutes to be de¬ 
prived of reason and moral sentiment. He was very far, then, from 
thinking of any philosophic plans for their emancipation, though it has 
since been demonstrated to be practicable, as it has been accomplished 
in Western Europe and America. We are here considering the sim¬ 
plest form of liberty, namely, corporeal alone, and not social, of which 
we shall treat presently. 

The philosophers, after having seen under the last Caesars that cor¬ 
poreal liberty which was so long deemed impossible for the masses, 
was nevertheless a very practicable thing, should have recognized how 
much their science was at fault with its doctrine of impossibility, and 
its assertion that Nature is limited to known means. But they took 
no note of the lesson thus taught them by history, and never thought 
of analyzing and transmitting the process by which emancipation was 
at last effected. 

Some superficial notions on the subject exist, but they are of no 
practical value. Hence in our own times, when the corporeal emanci¬ 
pation of the slaves has been attempted, the experiment has proved 
unsuccessful. In 1789, our political philosophers undertook the enter- 
prize in St. Domingo, but instead of inquiring as to the suitable means 
for its accomplishment, they blindly followed party prejudices without 
any regard to judicious philanthropic measures. They succeeded, 
therefore, only in making that fine island a scene of carnage, under 


LIBERTY. 


n 


the pretext of liberty. Thus our philosophic theories are proved en¬ 
tirely incompetent in all that respects the problem of corporeal or 
material liberty, and the means of emancipation, whether immediate or 
gradual. 

Let us repeat, as a very just cause of complaint, that after having 
believed for a thousand years, during the course of Greek and Roman 
history, that emancipation was impossible, the philosophers did not ob¬ 
serve or transmit the means by which it was at last accomplished 
without bloodshed or commotion. We will now take up our subject 

1. Simple or Corporeal Liberty without social Liberty. This 
is the liberty enjoyed by those who have a very small but regular in¬ 
come, just sufficient to secure the necessaries of life. Such persons 
possess active corporeal Liberty , since they are not compelled to work 
like the common laborer who has no fixed income, no resource but his 
daily toil. They have, however, no scope for the development and 
satisfaction of the passions. A man of this class is perfectly free to go 
to the Opera, but he must have the means to pay for his admission; 
now he has barely enough to feed and clothe himself. He is free to 
aspire to a seat in the halls of legislation ; but he must be independ¬ 
ent, which he is not. With all his pretended rights as a freeman, he 
has only the shadow of social Liberty. He is stopped at the door of 
the opera and of the legislative hall. He is but a passive member of 
society, in which his passions have no positive development, and his 
opinions are without weight. Nevertheless, he has much more liberty 
than the common laborer, who is compelled to work to avoid starva¬ 
tion, and has but one day in the week of active corporeal Liberty, which 
is Sunday 5 on all other days, he possesses only passive corporeal Lib¬ 
erty. His daily toil is for him an indirect slavery, accepted from 
necessity, but still amounting to corporeal restraint when compared 
with the freedom and recreation he enjoys on the Sabbath. 

Social Liberty in like manner must be. distinguished into active and 
passive. As is just explained, it is a liberty which is enjoyed by nei¬ 
ther of the classes above mentioned; they possess only simple or cor¬ 
poreal liberty, which is active in the case of the man with a small 
income, and passive in the case of the laborer who has none, but who 
again is less miserable than the slave who possesses neither active nor 
passive corporeal liberty. 

2. Corporeal Divergent Liberty. This comprises active cor¬ 
poreal and active social Liberty, or full scope for the development and 


72 


LIBERTY. 


action of the passions. These two kinds of liberty are possessed by the 

Savage ; he is as free to take part in the deliberations upon peace 

and war as a cabinet minister among us. He possesses, as far as is 
possible in the horde, full scope for the action of the passions, and 
particularly that freedom from care which is all but unknown in Civ¬ 
ilization, even among the rich and great. True, he is obliged to hunt 
and fish for a subsistence, but this labor being attractive to him inter¬ 
feres in no way with his active corporeal liberty. A labor which is 
agreeable cannot be called servitude, as ploughing would be to the 
Savage; hunting is to him a pleasure, like selling for the tradesman. 
Does any one believe that the shopkeeper suffers any corporeal restraint 
when he unrolls a hundred pieces of goods in the course of a morn¬ 
ing, and retails a mass of wares and of falsehoods ? No: this work 

becomes a pleasure to him, for he is engaged in attractive labor, and 
possesses corporeal liberty. As a proof of this, our shopkeeper, so 
happy to-day, will become sullen and crabbed if no purchaser enters 
his store to-morrow, and he has no chance to lie or to sell. 

We have seen that the liberty of the Savage is compound , being 
active corporeal and active social ; but these two liberties are exercised 
in divergence from human destiny—that is, from productive labor. To 
raise him to a state of active convergent liberty. he must be induced to 
engage from attraction in productive Industry , like that of the Series ; 
he would then advance to the Liberty of the third degree. 

3. Compound Convergent Liberty. This includes active corpo¬ 
real and active social Liberty , allied to attractive productive Industry. 
It implies unanimity of opinion among all the members of the social 
body, the voluntary exercise by every individual, man, woman and 
child of Productive Industry, and a sincere love of the established 
order. This third kind of liberty is the Destiny of Man. 

The liberty possessed by the Savage is then of a simple or false 
nature, since it is divergent from human destiny — an important dis¬ 
tinction which serve to show the error of those that believe that sim- 
ple nature is the destiny of man. As for compound liberty, it is found 
still less in Civilization; the two kinds of liberty, the active corporeal 
and the active social, are no where found convergent to, or allied with 
Industry. 

Those who possess in the present order these two kinds of liberty, 
tend only to give them a divergent action or development—or one 
opposed to productive Industry; they incline to a life of indolence, 


LIBERTY. 


73 


often of destructiveness, witness children, who begin to break and 
destroy the moment they are allowed active corporeal liberty, and are 
not observed. 

These distinctions are somewhat minute, but after so many contro¬ 
versies in relation to false liberty, is it not time now to understand 
the nature of true, that is, compound convergent Liberty ? This cannot 
exist in the Civilized Order, since it supposes the unanimous and vol¬ 
untary exercise of Industry, whereas the masses in this Order are 
everywhere in a state of discontent, and are kept from insurrection 
only by fear of punishment. 

There is, indeed, in Civilization a certain class, the rich and the 
privileged, who are satisfied with the existing state of things, but their 
number is limited to about an eighth of the population, while the re¬ 
maining seven-eighths are discontented. These consist of the hireling 
classes and the common people, who are almost everywhere disposed 
to resistance and revolution. 

The multitude then possess only simple or corporeal liberty. Their 
daily labor is an indirect slavery for them, from which they would 
gladly escape. 1 

There remains to be considered a portion of the population called 
the middle class, consisting of the shopkeepers, master-mechanics and 
persons with a small income. We find among these a large majority 
who are dissatisfied with the established order of things, and desire 
certain changes — admission, for example, to certain rights and privi¬ 
leges. These, then, do not enjoy active social liberty, or rather they 
enjoy it but partially. They are at variance with the existing social 
order. Their liberty is only compound divergent, since they are not 
voluntarily attached to it, and in unity with it. 

There is, then, but a very small minority who accept and adhere 
to the Civilized State as it is now organized. This minority is com¬ 
posed of men of leisure and fortune, who are not actively engaged in 
productive Industry. It also includes certain privileged classes who 
monopolize all lucrative employments; these enjoy a compound liberty 
which is semi-convergent, but their number is very small, and, more¬ 
over, they avoid productive labor, desire many changes in the social 
and administrative order, and have no guarantee that their present 
good fortune is to last 

Thus we see that there are but very few Civilizecs who possess 
anything like true, that is compound convergent liberty. In fact, it 
4 


74 


LIBERTY. 


■would be easy to prove that not one of them possesses it in full; that 
even monarchs are far removed from it, while the people at large, and 
especially the indigent classes, are reduced to simple or corporeal lib¬ 
erty, which is still further restricted by military conscriptions, domestic 
servitude and the virtual enslavement of women and children, who do 
not possess even full corporeal liberty. 

As to social liberty, the poorer classes are wholly deprived of it; 
for under the wages system they are reduced to a drudgery which en¬ 
slaves both body and soul. A hired laborer whose opinions are opposed 
to those of his employer, is often dismissed and deprived of work; he 
does not then possess active social liberty, nor even freedom of opinion 
and the exercise of his reason. 

Can it be pretended that social liberty exists in such a state of 
things ? No ; for it is confined to the small minority who possess for¬ 
tune, and in fact many of these have no practical liberty of opinion. 
This kind of tyranny is not found in the savage state; for there, 
whether a man possesses property or not, he enjoys full liberty of dis¬ 
cussion, and several other kinds, such as those of hunting and fishing, 
which rights in most civilized countries are prohibited, except to the 
rich and privileged classes. 

There are seven natural rights, all of which the Savage possesses : 
they are hunting, fishing, gathering the fruits of the earth, free pas¬ 
turage, marauding, interior federation, and freedom from care. 

These rights combined constitute compound divergent liberty, which 
should be allied with a fully developed system of associated Industry; 
for the human race cannot call itself free until it shall obtain in the 
exercise of Industry the rights which are assured to it in the savage 
state — rights which ought not to be restricted except on condition of 
a full equivalent agreed to, and accepted by each individual. 

If, then, Civilization pretends to elevate man to liberty combined 
with Industry, it must insure to him a satisfactory equivalent for the 
seven natural rights; an equivalent so complete that the Savage, who 
now possesses these rights, will prefer to join the Civilized Order and 
engage in productive labor 

This is the condition which the philosophers should have fulfilled 
in their theories of Liberty. They have admitted that man should have 
an indemnity for the seven natural rights of which it consists, but 
what have they offered him ? Two chimeras, both opposed to Liberty, 
pgmely, equality and fraternity, which are admissible in the savage 


LIBERTY. 


state, but not in polished nalions. For what result has been obtained 
in our day from these chimeras ? A fraternity whose leaders send each 
other in turn to the scaffold 5 an equality under which the masses, 
dubbed with the name of sovereigns, have neither work nor bread, 
sell their lives at sixpence a day, and are dragged in chains to the 
field of slaughter. 

Such are the effects we have seen spring from this system in France, 
where equality and fraternity have been allied with a shadow of 
liberty. 

How could the philosophers, seeing this monstrous result of their 
dogmas, hesitate for a moment to abjure them, and to declare to the 
world that either the idea of liberty must be renounced, or that the 
means of its realization must be sought in some other science than 
Philosophy, some other society than Civilization ? 

I shall now proceed to give the theory of super-compound Liberty 
which insures to man in industrial Societies rights equivalent, and even 
far superior, to those possessed by the Savage, and which guarantees 
their free and practical exercise, tested by the impassioned, unanimous 
and permanent assent of every individual — man, woman and child. 

The existence of this equivalent can be tested only by the volun¬ 
tary acceptance of it by the Savage, or man in the state of Nature. 
He will not give up his compound divergent liberty, his seven natural 
lights, and engage in productive Industry, unless it offers him the in¬ 
ducement of a happier condition, well secured, as will be shown in the 
treatise on the Passional Series (compound convergent liberty), which 
far from admitting equality and fraternity, will require inequalities of 
all kinds, and a graduated system of contrasts and rivalries. 

Let us repeat on this subject a few ideas already presented in the 
description of the Passional Series, and observe how much this Order, 
though supremely free, is opposed to the speculations of the philoso¬ 
phers upon liberty. 

Nothing can be less fraternal or less equal than the groups of a 
Passional Series : to equilibriate it properly there must be combined 
all extremes of fortune, knowledge and character; there must be, for 
example, persons of wealth and of limited means, the impassioned and 
the apathetic, the learned and the ignorant, the old and the young. 
Such a combination is the farthest possible remove from equality. 

Another condition is that the groups of a Series must be in a state 
of rivalry ; that they criticise each other constantly in all the details 




76 LIBERTY. 

of their Industry; that their aims be incompatible and in every way 
distinct without the least fraternity; that they establish emulation, 
competition and rival schemes of every kind. Such a system would 
be as far from fraternity as from equality; and yet it is from this 'Com¬ 
bination that will spring super-compound liberty — a liberty wholly op¬ 
posed to our philosophic theories, which inculcate contempt of riches, 
and at the same time extol our system of commerce which is based on 
duplicity and fraud. The Combined Order, with its super-compound 
liberty , recommends on the contraiy the love of riches and of material 
splendor, the extirpation of duplicity and fraud, and the guarantee of 
veracity in all commercial transactions. 

The Civilized Order is based on the smallest possible domestic and 
industrial combination, that of one man and one woman, — a single 
couple in a separate household. The Combined Order would, on the 
contrary, be based on the largest combination possible, say about fif¬ 
teen hundred persons, who would substitute in the place of domestic 
monotony, conjugal apathy and industrial indifference, active emulation, 
general enthusiasm and ardor in labor. 

The Civilized Order secures for the most part fortune and honor 
to intrigue and falseness, while ruin is the result of generous devo¬ 
tion and the practice of truth; the Combined Order on the other hand 
would insure success only to the practice of strict veracity and justice, 
and the exercise of the nobler sentiments. 

Such is the true basis of integral or compound convergent Liberty. 
It is, then, a very different thing from that superficial liberty, limited 
to the political sphere, which has been the subject of such interminable 
controversies in Civilization. 

Without doubt Liberty is a very precious boon, since every party 
wishes to secure it for itself, deprive all others of it, monopolize every 
thing, and concentrate all privileges, all honors, all power in the hands 
of a limited number. In Civilization, this is the only kind of liberty 
known; I will point out the conditions of a liberty of a character 
entirely different. 

Liberty, unless enjoyed by all, is unreal and illusory. Whenever 
the free action of the Passions is restricted to a small minority, there 
is only oppression; as for example in Civilization, where it is limited 
to an eighth, while even this favored few do not enjoy a fourth of the 
passional development they will possess in the Combined Order. 

To secure liberty, that is full scope for the action and development 


LIBERTY. 77 

of the Passions to all, a Social Order is necessary which shall fulfill 
the following conditions: 

1. Discover and organize a system of Attractive Industry. 

2. Guarantee to every individual the equivalent of the seven nat¬ 
ural rights. 

3. Associate the interests of all classes, rich and poor,* since the 
latter would be envious of the former, if they did not participate with 
them in their welfare and social enjoyments. 

It is only on these three conditions that the masses can be assured 
a minimum — that is, a comfortable subsistence, together with the en¬ 
joyment of all social pleasures; for the agreeable is as necessary to 
man as the useful. Deprived of pleasures, he would remain discon¬ 
tented, and would not give a cordial assent and adherence to the estab¬ 
lished order of things; he would be deprived of the seventh natural 
right, namely, freedom from care. He can enjoy this fully only by 
being insured a compound minimum —that is, the means of satisfying 
the wants of both the body and the soul. 

After this definition of the different degrees and the conditions 
of Liberty, I shall proceed to examine it in its connection with the 
seven natural rights, distinguished into simple and compound. This 
distinction of simple and compound is a guide which we must con¬ 
stantly consult in studying the Passions; it is only to the Simplist 
that Nature is veiled iii mystery ; from the moment we view her in a 
compound light, all the mysteries in which she is enshrouded, will 
disappear. 


* Fourier uses the term “poor” iu a comparative sense to designate the difl'er- 
ence that will exist in Association in the degrees of fortune. As individual property 
will be maintained, and Energy, Talent and Genius remunerated according to their 
works, there will exist necessarily different degrees of wealth. Those who possess 
the least will be relatively poor. But the poorest man in the Combined Order will be 
in reality richer than the richest in Civilization. He will possess in the first place 
the guarantee at all times of a Minimum, that is, of a sufficiency of all that is ne¬ 
cessary to his physical wants — food, clothing, lodging, etc., the right of admission 
to all places of public amusement, to public assemblies, to social unions not of a 
private character, and the enjoyment of equal social privileges. In addition he will 
possess a boon which the rich man now only exceptionally enjoj's, namely, attractive 
and healthy occupations ; he will also possess one which is beyond the reach even of 
monarchs : it is the full development and the normal and harmonious satisfaction 
of the Passions of the soul. If we could look into the future and be witness of,the 
Combined Order in all its perfection, we should see the humblest of its members 
enjoying a condition, both physical and spiritual, far above that of the most favored 
in Civilization.—E ditok. 





CHAPTER FIFTH. 

EXAMINATION OF QUESTIONS WHICH ARE THE SURJECT- OF CONTROVERSY 
IN CIVILIZATION. — CONTINUED. 

" THE SEVEN NATURAL RIGHTS OF MAN. 

In this chapter I shall endeavor to throw some light on the much 
controverted question of the Rights of Man. I shall show how the 
Combined Older will ensure to every individual the full exercise of the 
seven natural rights, the enjoyment of which is wholly impossible in 
the civilized social Order. 

Let us first give a summary definition of these rights, together with 
the two pivotal ones: 


GAMUT OF THE NATURAL RIGHTS OF MAN WITH THEIR ANALOGIES. 


Rights. 

Passions. 

Colors. 

Curves. 

Sounds. 

1. Gathering of natural products, 

Friendship, 

Violet, 

Circle, 

Do. 

2. Pasturage, 

Love, 

Azure, 

Ellipsis, 

Mi. 

3. Fishing, 

Familism, 

Yellow, 

Parabola, 

Sol. 

4. Hunting, 

Ambition, 

Red, 

Hyperbola, 

Si. 

5. Interior Federation, 

Emulative, 

Indigo, 

Spiral, 

Re. 

6. Freedom from Care, 

Alternative, 

Green, 

Conchoid, 

Fa. 

7. External Marauding, 

Composite, 

Orange, 

Logarithm, 

La. 

_ C Direct, Minimum, 

Pivots < 

Unityism, 

White, 

Cycloid, 

Do. (high) 

) Inverse, Liberty , 

Favoritism , 

Black , 

Epicycloid , Do. (low) 


I have annexed to the Table four analogies which will serve to 
disabuse those who might otherwise look upon the preference which I 
shall generally give to -the numbers 7 and 12 as an arbitrary conform 
ity-to a preconceived system; I do not, however, exclude the other 
numbers, but reserve them for special uses,—not employing them in 
the operations of unity to which they are inapplicable. 

Liberty is the effect of the seven natural rights ; it results from their 
c< mbination as black and white are the union or absorption of the 
seven rays. 

Liberty is simple and false, leading to duplicity of action, unless it 


RIGHTS OF MAN. 


79 


is supported by the counter pivot, that is, the Minimum, which is 
the first or pivotal of all rights. It is inadmissible, however, in the 
Savage state, which guarantees the seven rights and the inverse pivotal 
right—Liberty — to the men alone, excluding the women who are re¬ 
duced to servitude, and are much worse off than in Civilization; their 
servitude constitutes the duplicity of action in the Savage state. 

The object of this chapter is to explain in brief a principle which 
will be fully demonstrated in the course of the work — namely, that 
unity cau be established in the general action of society only by the 
intervention of the two Pivots; if it is sustained only by a single 
pivot, that of Liberty, it is out of balance; in this case the seven 
natural Rights become so many sources of disorder, and cause the 
social Movement to retrograde towards the Savage state; if a portion 
only'of these rights is conceded, it retrogrades partially. 

On the contrary, if the seven Rights are sustained by the compound 
Pivot—by the Minimum and by Liberty — they become so many 
sources of social Harmony. If the Minimum only were established it 
would suffice, since it implies Liberty 5 for the Minimum cannot be 
guaranteed except by the operation of the Passional Series from which 
Liberty springs. But if it is attempted, according to the plan of polit¬ 
ical theorists, to establish Liberty without the Minimum in any of the 
subversive societies, the effect will be to increase the subversion and 
to establish in the place of the seven Rights the seven social scourges, 
and to transform the two pivotal rights into two evils: 

Universal Selfishness," in place of the Proportional Minimum. 

Duplicity of Action, in place of Unitary Liberty. 

It is evident that in the civilized social Mechanism we have two 
Pivots which are the opposite of the two in the preceding Table of 
natural Rights: First, instead of the Minimum which supposes a gua¬ 
rantee on the part of the social body to every individual of the neces¬ 
saries and the enjoyments of life, we have a universal Selfishness which 
is increasing, and renders every one utterly indifferent to the welfare 
of others. This selfishness is becoming more intense with the growth 
of the commercial spirit. Second; instead of unitary Liberty or the 


* The French lerm for selfishness (Egoisme) has a different shade of meaning 
from the term in English. It implies a kind of moral selfishness, a calculated con¬ 
centration on self-interest. It would be better translated in many instances by Sklf- 
ism. — Editor. 



80 


"RIGHTS OF MAN. 


concurrence of the mass in securing to every individual the enjoyment 
of his seven natural rights, we have only leagues among the opu¬ 
lent classes to escape from social burdens and throw them upon the 
poor, to whom in Civilization none of the seven rights, nor any com¬ 
pensation for them can be conceded. 

Let us briefly define these Rights; it is useless to speak of the 
four cardinal ones — the first four of the Table — which are well enough 
understood. Every one knows that the Savage has entire freedom to 
hunt and to fish, free access to the fruits of the earth, and free pastur¬ 
age for whatever animals he pleases to raise. In addition, he possesses 
the right of marauding, that is, the right to pillage any one who is 
not in federal and passional league with his Horde. He does not pil¬ 
lage his companions, the members of his tribe; but this restriction, so 
far from preventing, favors the federal or combined practice of maraud¬ 
ing ; it is an extension of this practice by which the whole tribe league 
together to plunder other tribes, caravans and civilized neighbors. 
Thus the exercise of the fifth and seventh rights — internal League and 
external Marauding — is enjoyed by a Savage in full; it is prac¬ 
tised even by many honest Civilizees, the strongest of whom often 
combine to despoil the weakest. 

The seventh natural Right is Freedom from Care. This Right can 
be enjoyed in Civilization only by means of ample wealth ; but nine- 
tenths of the civilized population, far from being able to dismiss care 
for the morrow, are burdened with the cares of the passing day, since 
they are obliged to devote themselves to repugnant and compulsory 
labor to obtain a livelihood. Hence, on Sundays they resort to public 
houses and other places of entertainment to taste for a few moments 
something of that freedom from care, so vainly sought for even by 
many of the rich who are harassed by the anxieties of life. “ Post 
equitem sedat atra cura.” (Behind the knight rides consuming care.) 

Quibblers will say that Freedom from Care is not a right but a 
disposition of mind; it becomes a right, however, from the fact that it 
is proscribed in Civilization, in which thoughtlessness for the future is 
dishonored and loudly condemned. 

The Savage evidently possesses this freedom from care, and is not 
disposed to trouble himself about the future ; were i 4 t otherwise, he 
would be in fear lest his children and his tribe be exposed to famine. 
He would accept the offer made him by civilized governments of im¬ 
plements for agriculture, but he is not willing to give up any one of 


EIGHTS OF MAN. 81 

his seven rights; and in this he is wise, for if he should cede one —• 
freedom from care — he would soon lose them all. Doubtless he makes 
no such calculation, but Nature makes it for him ; he is directed 
rightly on this point by Attraction. The only plausible objection which 
can be raised against this privilege of the Savage, is that it is not en¬ 
joyed by the women; and yet women constitute half of the human 
race, and their condition in the Savage state is one of bondage and 
misery. I mention it as the philosophers are in the habit of consider¬ 
ing women as of no importance. 

Of the three passional sexes which constitute the human race, 

The major, Men, 

The minor, 'Women, 

The mixed or neutral, Children,* 

philosophy recognizes but one, and works for but one, namely, the 
major or masculine. 

I have replied beforehand to the preceding objection in describing 
the liberty of the Savage as compound divergent It diverges in two 
modes: socially, by the repugnance for, and refusal of productive In¬ 
dustry which is the destiny of man ; materially, by the exclusion of 
the female sex from the seven natural rights, in which they are allowed 
little or no participation. 

It is certain that the Savage is further advanced in liberty than the 
masses in Civilization, for he possesses compound divergent liberty, or 
the enjoyment of the seven natural rights. 

The civilized social Order, in which all or nearly all are despoiled 
of these rights, should have secured to man a full and satisfactory in¬ 
demnity for them; and first of all a Minimum , that is, an ample suf¬ 
ficiency of food, lodging, clothing, proportioned to the wants of all 
classes; but this alone would not secure individual liberty, for a man 
has a minimum of food, clothing, etc., in our almshouses, where never¬ 
theless he is a prisoner and very miserable. There remain, then, other 


* It will be objected that children, being male or female, do not, like hermaphro¬ 
dites, constitute a different sex. This is a one-sided objection, which is defective even 
from a material point of view, since children do not exercise the functions which 
distinguish the sexes. In the passional or affectional sphere, the difference is more 
striking still, for there are two of the affections which they do not feel, namely, 
Love and Paternity. They are, then, a neuter sex, both materially and passion- 
ally ; we shall see the proof of this when 1 treat of their functions in passional 
harmony. 

4* 



82 


eights op man. 


conditions to be fulfilled to attain liberty: first, the guarantee to every 
individual of the full exercise of, or the equivalent for the seven nat¬ 
ural rights which constitute it; and secondly, the securing to him of 
full scope for the development and action of the Passions. 

The Civilized Order, while depriving man of his seven natural 
rights, offers him no equivalent for them. Ask the unfortunate laborer 
without work and without bread, pursued by creditors and constables, 
if he would not prefer to possess the rights of hunting and fishing, and 
to have his flocks and fields like the Savage ? He will not hesitate to 
decide in the affirmative. And what does Civilization offer him as a 
substitute for these advantages? The privilege of voting, of being 
called a sovereign, or the happiness of living under a constitution; but 
the poor man cannot content himself with reading a constitution when 
he has nothing to eat: it is insulting his misfortune to offer him such 
a compensation. He would esteem himself fortunate to possess, like 
the Savage, the seven rights and liberty ; he does not, then, possess 
them in Civilization. 

It may be laid down as a general principle, that Liberty , when in¬ 
troduced isolatedly as a simple element and. without the minimum , becomes 
illusory and disastrous in all industrial societies. To introduce it as a 
compound element, and secure it fully, it must be accompanied by the 
seven rights, with their compound or dualized pivot, that is, with a 
guarantee of Liberty and the Minimum. It is only on this condition 
of a compound Pivot that the rights of man can coexist with industrial 
societies; when accompanied by but a single pivot, by Liberty with¬ 
out the Minimum, they are admissible only in the Savage state or state 
of simple Nature. Hence our theories of human rights and of Liberty, 
when put to the trial, have produced so many failures and disastrous 
commotions. 

Existing societies being based on two pivots opposed to Liberty 
and the Minimum, namely, 

Subversive Pivots. Harmonic Pivots. 

Universal Selfishness in place of The Proportional Minimum, 

Duplicity of Action in place of Unitary Liberty, 

neither of the two Harmonic Pivots can be introduced partially; they 
must be introduced together and be substituted in the place of the two 
Subversive Pivots, — an operation which cannot take place except 
through the mechanism of the Series, out of which the passions are in 


RIGHTS OF MAN. 


S3 


a state of counter-development and subversion, leading to the reign of 
selfishness and duplicity. 

After these preliminary remarks, let us speak of the three conditions 
necessary to the establishment of a Minimum, which should guarantee 
to us, 

1 . Liberty, the counter-pivot of the Minimum. 

2 . Exercise of the seven Natural Rights. 

These rights, as we have said, cannot exist in industrial societies — 
or societies of a compound nature—unless they are supported by the 
compound or two-fold Pivot, namely, the Minimum in conjunction with 
Liberty. The latter suffices alone in the Savage state, or state of 
simple nature, but does not suffice in industrial societies, or state of 
compound nature. What we have said is sufficient to explain that 
without the Minimum, the social Order rests on no solid basis. The 
principal conditions necessary to such a basis are, 

I. The discovery and organization of a system of Attrac¬ 
tive Industry. Without this safeguard, how would it be possible to 
guarantee to the poor a Minimum ? It would only encourage them to 
idleness; they would easily persuade themselves that the minimum 
was a debt due to them from society, and would decide, therefore, to 
remain in a state of idleness. 

If Science had discovered the means of organizing labor so as to 
render it attractive, the minimum would have been secured at once by 
the entire cessation of idleness. It would only have been necessary, 
then, to provide for the infirm, which would be but a very light bur¬ 
den for society, become opulent and delivered by Attractive Indus¬ 
try from indolence and from negligent labor, which is almost as 
fruitless as idleness itself. 

II. The Guarantee to every individual of the exercise of 
the seven natural rights, or an equivalent for them. I have 
stated that this guarantee cannot be secured except by the establishment 
of the Passional Series; I engage to demonstrate in the Treatise on the 
Series, that hunting for example — a pleasure of which the rich now 
deprive the poor in nearly all countries — will become so tame an 
amusement that in order to find any number of persons to take part 
in it, it will be necessary, notwithstanding the abundance of game, to 
supply them gratuitously with horses and dogs, repasts in .the forests, 
etc.; and even on these terms, the chase will be but an inferior 
kind of amusement, hardly equal to the commonest pleasures and 


84 


EIGHTS OF MAN. 


excitements of the industrial groups. In this case, the people will have 
obtained a full equivalent for the right of hunting possessed by the 
Savage; for they will have offered to them without charge all the 
equipments of hunting and fishing, which few will be found to accept; 
and even those who prefer other occupations to hunting and fishing 
will enjoy the products of the latter every day at table. The equiva¬ 
lent will thus be three-fold, for every one will have, 

1. The right of hunting and fishing. 

2. Gratuitous supply of all the necessary equipments for them. 

3. Enjoyment of the products of hunting and fishing without hav¬ 
ing shared in the fatigue. 

On this hypothesis the people will enjoy in a three-fold sense what 
the Savage enjoys only simply , and at the cost of much fatigue. Thus 
the Combined Order furnishes in every case, not one but three equiva¬ 
lents, one of which is the natural Right itself, reproduced under other 
forms, and enhanced by accessories of elegance and pleasure, unknown 
to the Savage who exercises each of the seven Rights in the simple 
mode. 

III. Associate the interests of all classes, the rich and 
poor, for the latter would envy the former if they did not 
participate in their prosperity and happiness. 

Any liberty would become a germ of contention and disorder if the 
rich and the poor hated each other as at present. The only means of 
harmonizing them passionally, of interesting them in each other, is to 
associate them in Industry. The tenant who has a share of the crop 
desires that the portion falling to the owner of the land should be large 
in order that his own may increase in the same degree. 

The secret of unity of Interests, then, is to be found in Association. 
The different classes once associated and having a common interest, 
would forget their jealousies; the more so as attractive Industry would 
put an end to the degrading toil of the masses, and to the contempt by 
the rich of the poor, in whose labors, rendered honorable and enticing 
they would participate. Here would end the jealousy of the poor 
towards the rich, who now reap without having sown; or rather there 
would no longer be either poor or idlers, and social antipathies would 
cease with the causes which produced them. 

It is often asserted that the luxury of the rich gives activity 
to trade and furnishes the poor the means of living; this is a shame¬ 
less falsehood, since the poor die of hunger around their palaces. 


RIGHTS OF MAN. 


85 


By means of this association of interests, the poor become interested 
in the prosperity of the rich, and their union being cemented by their 
habitual intercourse in the attractive labors and rivalries of the indus¬ 
trial Series, there will no longer be anything to fear from the entire 
liberty of the people, who, in their present state of misery and with 
their jealousies, would use their independence only to spoliate and 
ruin the wealthier classes. 

It results from the preceding remarks that the guarantee of the Min¬ 
imum depends entirely on the establishment of the Combined Order 
and of attractive Industry. Till then, how can men talk of liberty for 
the people, when it is impossible to guarantee them even the repug¬ 
nant labor on which their subsistence depends. Any liberty in such a 
state of things becomes a germ of sedition. 

Let us now recapitulate what we have said as to the meaning of 
Liberty, and the conditions on which it can be secured. We have 
shown that to be integral or super-compound, it must be sustained 
by a guarantee of the Minimum , and that this minimum requires 
three conditions, each of which is incompatible with the Civilized 
Order. 

True liberty, then, cannot exist in Civilization; and there exists in 
the Savage state only an incomplete and perilous liberty, since it leaves 
the horde exposed to famine, to war, to pestilence, and is extended 
neither to the women nor to the aged, who are neglected and aban¬ 
doned when they become infirm. 

This liberty of the male Savage, though preferable to the lot of the 
toiling multitude and the mendicants of Civilization, is still a rude con¬ 
dition and unworthy of reasonable beings, since it depends on the 
absence of Industry. On the other hand, the Civilized Order which 
entails so much destitution and misery on the laboring classes, is not 
the fruit of social genius, but of the absence of it, and is a disgrace 
to science. Far from having been able to secure to us true liberty, 
Science has been unable to explain it, and to determine its three de¬ 
grees : the simple, the compound, and the super-compound; there 
remains to it only the disgrace of having excited, since the origin of 
civilized societies, repeated political convulsions under the pretext of 
securing man a boon of which it has no real knowledge. Our scien¬ 
tific guides have treated the question of Liberty as they have that of 
Commerce; they have made it a subject of controversy, and, after in¬ 
numerable discussions, they have not even pointed out and called 


86 


EIGHTS OF MAN. 


attention to the following problems, which urgently invoke the effort* 
of genius: 

As regards Commerce: the need of Association, the guarantee of 
practical truth, the suppression of the numerous frauds and crimes of 
the commercial body — such as bankruptcy, usury, monopoly, adultera¬ 
tion. etc. 

As regards Liberty: the need of attraction in Industry, of an equi¬ 
valent for the seven natural rights, and of a guarantee of a graduated 
minimum. 

These omissions on the part of Science will be repaired in the 
body of the work; I confine myself here to indicating them. 

The reader must bear in mind that proofs should not be looked for 
in these preliminary sketches. I present my accusation only in the 
negative sense, and for the purpose of showing that the various branches 
of study just mentioned could not have been overlooked, but must 
have been left aside, as their discussion would have interfered with 
established systems and doctrines. 

Before concluding the subject, I will point out a fundamental erroi 
which has been committed in the study of the question of Liberty — 
namely, the denial of the Right to Labor. 

The Seriptures inform us that God condemned the first man and 
his posterity after him to eat bread in the sweat of their brow ; but 
he did not at least condemn us to be deprived of the labor on which 
our subsistence depends. On the ground of human rights, then, we 
may invite Philosophy and Civilization not to render altogether vain 
that resource which Providence has left us as a last resort, and to 
guarantee us at least the right to pursue that kind of labor to which 
we have been trained. 

If I did not mention this right in the Table of the seven natural 
Rights, it is because the Right' to Labor is a resultant from the four 
cardinal rights — hunting , fishing, gathering and •pasturage. The Right 
to Labor is then a hyper-cardinal right, embracing the four branches 
of labor to which we have a natural right. 

Besides the four forms of positive Industry, Nature gives to Savage 
tribes a right to negative Industry, which is plunder outside the horde, 
for which all Savages have a strong inclination. Such is simple na¬ 
ture which the moralists so highly extol; she endows men with the 
right to plunder and a taste for it, and the civilizees themselves are 
only too faithful to her impulses. 


EIGHTS OF MAN. 


87 


Thus of the seven natural Rights, four guarantee us that industry 
which Civilization refuses, or which she concedes to us only on illu¬ 
sory conditions, as for example, that which pays tribute, the profits of 
which go to a master and uot to the workman. 

We shall get an equivalent for the four cardinal Rights only in a 
social Order in which the poor man can say to his fellow-men, to the 
Association of his birth: u On this soil was I born; I claim admis¬ 
sion to all branches of Industry prosecuted on it, and a guarantee for 
the enjoyment of the fruits of my labor, and a subsistence to compen¬ 
sate for that right of appropriating, whatever I find, — a right which 
simple nature gave me.” Every being in the Combined Order, however 
destitute he may be, will always have the right to address such language 
to the district of his birth, and his demands will be cordially conceded. 

On such conditions only will Humanity truly enjoy its rights; but 
as society is now constituted, is it not insulting the poor man to pre¬ 
tend to grant him rights of sovereignty, when all he asks is the privi¬ 
lege to toil that the indolent may enjoy ? 

After so many empty discussions about the rights of man, no one 
has recognized the most essential of all, the right to Labor, without 
which all others amount to nothing. What a disgrace for nations 
boasting of their political wisdom! Should not particular attention be 
called to so disgraceful an oversight, that we may dispose the minds 
of men to study the social mechanism which shall restore to man all 
his natural rights — the cardinal one of which, the right to Labor, 
Civilization can neither admit nor guarantee ? 

I simply mention this subject in order to exhibit the extreme igno¬ 
rance of the moderns regarding the theory of Liberty — to show the 
necessity of “ retracing our ideas to their origin, and of forgetting all 
that we have learned” respecting Liberty, as of all problems relating 
to the Study of Man. It was a problem of no mean importance to 
determine how the free exercise of the natural rights could be made 
to coexist with the development of Universal Liberty. But however 
formidable it may seem, a partial or entire solution of it might have 
been reached, had the problem of human Destiny been studied trom a 
compound instead of the simple point of view, to which all classes of 
theorists in Civilization are addicted. 

Let us briefly recapitulate, and state the general conclusions to be 
drawn from the preceding chapters; they should be engraved in 
letters of gold. 


88 


EIGHTS OF MAN. 


No super-compound Liberty without the Minimum ; 

No Minimum without Attractive Industry ; 

No Attractive Industry in the incoherent or civilized system of labor ; 
it can only result from the serial organization of Industry. 

The Minimum, then, guaranteed by Attractive Industry, is the sole 
path to Liberty, a condition sine qud non. 

To enter upon this path, we must emerge from the Civilized Social 
Order ; there are various issues from it; let us decide for the simplest 
and most feasible, which is Association. 

Here are themes for meditation, which express much in a few words. 

I have shown that in the study of the most ancient of controverted 
.problems, the human mind has gone completely astray. I shall add 
to the proofs of this assertion by exposing a like state of ignorance in 
the treatment of commercial questions, which are the most recent sub¬ 
ject of controversy. After this demonstration of the gross errors com¬ 
mitted with regard to the theories of Liberty and Commerce, we shall 
be able to estimate how completely the world has been misled under 
the direction of our philosophic guides. 


CHAPTER SIXTH. 


EXAMINATION OF QUESTIONS WHICH ARE THE SUBJECT OF CONTROVERSY 
IN CIVILIZATION.—CONTINUED. 

COMMERCE: RANK WHICH IT OCCUPIES IN THE FOUR 
PHASES OF CIVILIZATION. 

We have examined one of the most ancient themes of controversy, 
that of Liberty; we will now treat of the most recent — the question 
of Commerce, which has become the absorbing subject of interest in 
modern times. 

The present system of Commerce, based on anarchical competition, 
will furnish us a fine occasion for censuring Science, which has not 
discovered that in Commerce, as in any other branch of relations, simpl£ 
liberty is a source of discord and disorder; that all liberty should be 
sustained by guarantees and counterpoises; in fine, that liberty should 
be compound and not simple , like that of the merchants, against whose 
frauds the social body has no guarantee. 

The merchants at present are free, but the social body is not so in 
its relations with them, for people are obliged to make purchases; they 
cannot dispense with food and clothing, which can be obtained only 
by buying; they are then dependent on the seller, to whose extortions 
they must submit. 

Such a mechanism is only simple , and not compound liberty; the 
liberty is all on the side of the seller, of whom the consumer is the 
dupe, and against whom he has no guarantee. To raise the commer¬ 
cial system to compound or reciprocal liberty, it was necessary to dis¬ 
cover and introduce this guarantee. 

Strange oversight, that after a hundred years of mercantile contro¬ 
versy it has not been observed that civilized Commerce is of the sim¬ 
ple and not of the compound mode ; that it insures liberty and proper 
guarantees to but one of the contracting parties—to the seller , and not 
the buyer. 

This truth is as new as was that announced by Copernicus, when 


00 


COMMERCE. 


he declared that it was the earth which turned and not the sun. But 
since the study of Commerce dates hack only a century, ought we to 
be surprised at the errors which have been committed in regard to it, 
when on so many other subjects, especially that of liberty, we see 
errors lasting for centuries ? 

It is not surprising, then, that the mercantile controversy which is 
of comparatively recent date, should still occupy itself with the simple 
method, which is always the first tendency of the human mind. No 
one is to be blamed for being a simplist in a study which is only at 
its commencement; but after a hundred years of experience, is there 
any excuse for not perceiving that we are on the wrong track, that 
we are speculating on the simple mode, which is without guarantees ? 
Is an age which talks so much of checks and balances, of guarantees 
and equilibria, pardonable for having failed to recognize that there is 
not a shadow of guarantee, check or balance in our commercial 
system ? 

There exists, nevertheless, in the present order a fine germ of truth 
supported by proper guarantees: men in earnest pursuit of the truth 
should not have failed to discover it in the monetary system. We 
shall point out in this system a clue to discoveries which have been 
shamefully missed by our economic sciences, which, in this matter, 
deserve censure. 

Whoever seeks for real discoveries, should know that he who pro¬ 
poses anything new is obliged to disregard the opinions of his age, 
and give a denial to its dominant prejudices. Could Kepler, when de¬ 
monstrating that the earth turned on its axis, compliment his cotempo- 
poraries who believed it immovable ? I am in the same position: I 
bring a theory whence will spring riches, truth and social unity; can 
I felicitate the age for having, under the auspices of its mercantile 
doctrines, fallen into the slough of indigence, fraud and duplicity of 
action ? As well compliment the goat for having been left by the fox 
at the bottom of the well. Men are blinded in respect to these enor¬ 
mities by the incense of the sophists who delude them with their 
flattering theories of progress and perfectibility; they would receive 
the same delusive flatteries from discoverers. But let no one be de¬ 
ceived in this : where there is incense for the age, there are no new 
ideas. If we sincerely desire new truths, real discoveries, we must not 
demand flattery from him who brings them. 

Commerce being the link or tie of the industrial system, being foi 


COMMERCE. 


91 


the social world what the blood is for the body, it was in Commerce 
that the attempt should have been made to introduce practical truth 
in place of that chaos of vices and frauds, a table of which I will give 
further on. Had the philosophers sought to reform the commercial 
system, they could have rendered a real service both to governments 
and peoples; instead of disorganizing the social world by their mania 
for overthrowing governments, they would have put it on the track of 
practical reforms. 

In antiquity, Commerce appeared contemptible to the philosophers, 
who looked upon it as the domain of falsehood and fraud; but since 
they have seen it grow to colossal dimensions by means of the inven¬ 
tion of the compass and the discovery of the two Indies, they at. least 
determined to study it 

The first thing which should have been remarked by men who 
were seeking for truth, was that it is wholly banished from Commerce. 

Another important observation which the examination of Commerce 
should have suggested, was that in it are to be found the germs of 
various kinds of Association. 

Political science had then two problems to solve in the study of 
the commercial mechanism; the one positive, which consisted in devel¬ 
oping the germs of Association — the source of all economy — and in 
‘introducing it into Agriculture; the other negative, which was to ban¬ 
ish from the commercial system the fraud and falsity which pervade it 
generally, and which are the greatest obstacles to the activity of indus¬ 
trial relations. 

These two problems were intimately connected, and the solution of 
the one would have led to the solution of the other; for guarantees 
of truth cannot be introduced into Commerce without the aid of Asso¬ 
ciation, and the associative principle cannot be extended without 
discovering the guarantees of truth. 

A fine and noble career was here opened to science. Governments 
and learned bodies should have united in encouraging the study, and, 
if necessary, in making it obligatory; with the least success, it would 
have led the social world to the sixth society, called Guarantism, * 
which is a very happy state in comparison with Civilization. 


* Under the name of “ Guarantism” Fourier designates a social Order in which 
guarantees of all kinds will be established,—the guarantee of regular and remunerative 
employment, .the guarantee of education for all children, the guarantee of care and 



92 


COMMERCE. 


Political economists, to whom the analysis of Commerce properly 
belongs, have made of it as of other branches of study an arena of 
controversy; they have basely bowed before the golden calf, and ex¬ 
tolled the whole array of mercantile duplicities, the attack upon which 
should have been the first work of men sincerely seeking for truth. 
They could not have been ignorant that Commerce in its present state 
of entire liberty is a sink of abominations, such as bankruptcy, fore- 


supporj; for the aged and infirm, etc. It is a system of general and reciprocal guar¬ 
antees and insurance, by which the individual is sustained and protected by the so¬ 
cial body, and the social body secured against the peculations of the individual. It is 
the realization to a certain extent of the unity of the Collective with the Individual 
interest, — the inauguration of the reign of a Social Providence on earth. Fourier 
did not imagine this form of Society ; he deduced it from the Laws that govern the 
progressive development of beings, both individual and collective. These Laws indicate 
that iu the social Movement a transitional social state must exist between the Sub¬ 
versive Societies with their incoherence, disorder and discord, and Association with 
its unity and harmony. In this state, for example, the fraud and falsity that now 
exist in industry and commerce will be corrected ; the injustice, usurpation and in¬ 
trigue that prevail in politics, remedied ; equal social rights and privileges secured 
to women, and the suffering and misery attendant upon the present state of social 
incoherence, banished. A condition of general prosperity and well-being, of justice 
and order will be established ; but Harmony will not be realized. Industry will bo 
systematized and partially organized, but it will not be rendered attractive. The 
Passions of the soul will receive a normal development, and will be secured a certain 
degree of satisfaction, but they will not bo developed in their higher degrees so as 
to culminate in passional Harmony. Guarantism, then, is a middle stage between 
social Incoherence and social Harmony, the transition from the subversive to the 
harmonic Societies, — a transition which exists, as I stated, in the social as in all 
other branches of Movement. 

Fourier believes that the more advanced nations of the earth can, with the pro¬ 
gress they have made, pass over this transitional epoch, and organize at once social 
Harmony, that is to say, the Combined Order, based on Attractive Industry and the 
passional Series. He holds that industry, the arts, sciences and other elements of the 
social organization are at the present day so perfected that the operation is possible 
This passage over an intermediate stage, this jump, so to say, in social Movement, 
Fourier deduces also from a Law which he finds in Nature, and applied in certain 
exceptional cases. 

Although Guarantism would be a state infinitely happier than that of Civiliza¬ 
tion, yet men after living in it for a period would feel a great impatience to organ¬ 
ize the Combined Order; the enjoyment of a modeivate degree of happiness would 
soon stimulate them to desire the highest degree. Fourier, comprehending this, and 
reflecting on the immense labors necessary to establish Guarantism, urges strongly 
the organization at once of Association. He has discovered, he affirms, the funda¬ 
mental conditions necessary to its accomplishment, namely, the Law of organization 
of the Passions, or the Law according to which their development and action are 
regulated. It is this law which he designates briefly by the term, Passional Series. 
— Editor. 



COMMERCE. 


93 


stalling, extortion, speculation, usury, monopoly, fraud, adulteration, 
and the like. These characteristics offered a collection of vices hideous 
enough to have stimulated the friends of truth; the scandalous for¬ 
tunes of speculators, monopolists and commercial operator’s of all kinds, 
showed plainly enough that Commerce is the vulture of productive 
Industry; that under the pretext of serving, it audaciously spoliates it. 

All these enormities have been without power to arouse the Econo¬ 
mists or any other class of philosophers; they who would carry reform 
into so many departments have not dared to attempt it in those rela¬ 
tions where it was as easy as it would have been honorable to intro¬ 
duce it, and where they could have operated without causing either 
trouble or distrust 5 for no one is an advocate of commercial frauds 
which arc as onerous to governments as to the producing classes. Had 
the philosophers sought to discover a method of true and equitable 
commerce, and declared open war against the system of falsehood, ex¬ 
tortion and complication, which, under the name of free competition, 
reigns in commercial relations, they would have secured the thanks 
and approval of all classes. 

In this examination, I accuse not so much the philosophers as the 
whole system of Civilization which encourages corruption. If an Age 
upholds a vice, writers who seek popularity will not fail to extol it. 
But in analyzing this labyrinth of corruption, I will commence with 
the errors of the philosophers in commercial studies; we will then 
pass to those committed by nations. 

The manner in which the philosophers have treated Commerce 
proves clearly that the sacred fire is indeed extinct among them. 
Let us examine the opinions which an intelligent and honorable body 
of men would have entertained, and how they would have acted. 

Nature is never at fault in the collective impulses which she gives 
to the human race. When a profession excites universal contempt, be 
sure that it conceals some latent vice. We find no nation despising 
government, the sacredotal order, the judiciary or the military profes¬ 
sion. These functions enjoy everywhere general consideration 5 they 
enjoyed it before any philosophical theories existed; whereas Com¬ 
merce has excited among all primitive nations a well-merited contempt. 

There have been cited as an exception to this rule certain ancient 
states which were devoted to commerce, as for instance, Tyre and 
Athens. But these states had no extended territory : the famous repub¬ 
lic of Athens was not the hundredth part the size of France. A 


94 


COMMERCE. 


people without territory like the Athenians, or living on an ungrateful 
soil like the Hollanders, form an exception to the general rule; they 
devote themselves to parasite industry; they become industrial cor¬ 
sairs, monopolists and traffickers. They may well tolerate the mercan¬ 
tile profession, which is their only resource, and by the aid of which 
they spoliate the producing nations. 

It is nevertheless certain that all nations, with some rare exceptions 
which confirm the general rule, have exhibited an innate contempt for 
commerce. The Gospel makes no distinction between traffickers and 
thieves. Christ scourged the former and drove them from the temple, 
of which, says the evangelist, they had made a den of thieves. 

At that epoch men and things were called by their right names. 
Hence Christ called the civilizees a race of vipers, and the traffickers 
a band of robbers. This was the frankness characteristic of the olden 
time. The merchants and financiers of antiquity were rogues on but a 
small scale; they did not devour millions as at the present day. Now 
Civilization being in the habit of sending small rogues to the gallows 
and extolling great ones, it was natural that the mercantile class should 
be despised, so long as it robbed in a small way. Horace and other 
writers of classic antiquity amused themselves at its expense, and 
openly ridiculed the arts of money-getting held in such high estimation 
in our days. 

All this has changed since the discovery and conquest of the two 
Indies; the quantity of industrial products has increased ten-fold, and 
as a consequence the profits of the merchants, thirty-fold ; for to the 
regular profits of Commerce must be added those of usury, stock-job¬ 
bing and monopoly. In a word the merchants of our days are no 
longer petty rogues like those which Christ scourged and Horace sa¬ 
tirized. A stock-jobber or a great speculator makes at the present day 
in a single year more than ten jnonarchs. It is stated that a house in 
London made the sum of sixteen millions of dollars in one year on 
French loans. Now where is the sovereign in Europe who could lay 
aside, not in one year but ten, sixteen millions after paying the ex¬ 
penses of his household ? It is doubtful whether the sovereigns of 
Austria and of France, after deducting the expenses of the court and 
household, have at the end of the fiscal year a million left: neither 
of them then could save as much in ten year’s, as a great financial 
operator makes in one. 

This gigantic development of mercantile industry has bewildered 


COMMERCE. 


95 


the philosophers; they have turned towards the rising sun and pros¬ 
trated themselves before the god of speculation and stock-jobbing. Their 
science did not cringe so low before the commercial and financial in¬ 
terests a century ago. This independence of opinion no longer exists; 
we see only insolent pretensions on the one hand, and the degrading 
humiliation of science on the other; the mercantile vampires call for 
incense, and obsequious science proclaims that such incense is their 
due ; it teaches the nations respect for them and all their nefarious 
plots of monopoly and speculation.* 

With a public sentiment thus corrupted, it was not surprising that 
no discoveries have been made which would have led to reform in the 
commercial system. The ancients were excusable for sneering at the 
commercial power while yet in its infancy, but at the present day the 
whelp has become the lion; it is a new power which disputes author¬ 
ity even with governments themselves. We have seen the civil power 
contend against the colossal influence of the clergy in the Middle Ages, 
but now when a new tyranny, that of the strong box and the monied 
interest, the w r orst of all tyrannies, would seize in its grasp kings and 
peoples, we see the whole scientific corps prostrating itself before the 
mercantile colossus, that parasite which, without producing anything, 
appropriates to himself the wealth of nations, and forms in the indus¬ 
trial system a new influence, more potent than that of potentates them¬ 
selves, a vampire which, without legal sanction, enters into competition 
with the legal authorities, and arrogates to itself the lion’s share. 

The division is the more unequal from the fact that government 
levies its taxes in the simple mode, while Commerce and Banking reap 
their profits in the compound ; that is, the former levies only on the 
products of its own country, while the latter levy indifferently upon 
those of all countries. Certain bankers, w r ho are neither French, Aus¬ 
trian nor Spanish, have, perhaps, at the end of the year levied from 
the imposts of France, Austria and Spain, in the form of dividends on 
the national debts, a share larger than that of the governments them- 


* The term which Fourier uses in French is Agioatage; there is no one word 
in English which expresses it fully. Agioatage signifies the manoeuvres of financial 
and commercial operators to raise or lower the price of government and other stocks, 
and merchandize of all kinds, by means of combinations of capital, monopoly, finan¬ 
cial contractions, plots, panics, etc. It comprises, consequently, stock-gambling, mo¬ 
nopoly and speculation, and in general all schemes for producing an artificial rise or 
fall in the market.— Editor. 



96 


COMMERCE. 


selves, from which must be deducted the expenses of the civil list; 
these deductions made, there remains much less to the governments from 
the product of the taxes than to the bankers who negotiate the na¬ 
tional loans. After meeting the expenses of the different branches of the 
public service — war, marine, etc. — the surplus goes, not into the hands 
of the administration, but falls to usurers and stock-operators. 

Civilized states at present are in the position of embari’assed land¬ 
holders, who find the usurer drawing from their domains much more 
than they themselves who cultivate them. And as national debts go 
on increasing, the mercantile power which shares in the authority of 
governments tends to become their superior, and to bring them under 
its influence, or at least to maintain an equal sway with them. Never 
was duplicity of action more evident. 

The strong box is in Civilization all-powerful; thus we have seen 
the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle hesitating to decide upon anything till 
the arrival of two great bankers. When a political emergency places 
the revenues of a country at the mercy of a class of money-lenders, 
they become, from this fact, the rivals and competitors of the govern¬ 
ment ; this is the case at the present day with the financiers who 
manage national loans, and who see ministers at their feet. These 
devourers of the future give tone to public opinion and to the theories 
of the philosophers, and rule rulers themselves; so true is this, that any 
ministry wishing to thwart the machinations of the money-lenders and 
leaders of finance fails completely, and will continue to fail, until there 
shall be discovered a true and equitable system of commerce by which 
speculation, stock-jobbing, usury, fraud, monopoly and all other mer¬ 
cantile artifices lauded by the political economists, shall be abolished. 

This state of things should have attracted the attention of science. 
It is clear that Civilization has changed its character; that monopoly 
and stock-jobbing, which are two commercial characteristics, have over¬ 
thrown the old order of things. Is this a subject of congratulation or 
of alarm ? What is the final result foreshadowed by this monstrous irrup¬ 
tion of the mercantile power , whose encroachments are constantly on the 
increase ? 

This is a question which should have occupied the attention of our 
learned bodies in connection with the two problems already stated, 
namely: 

To develop the germs of commercial association, and give the prin¬ 
ciple universal application. 


COMMERCE. 97 

To combat the fraudulent system of Commerce by the discovery of 
the true or equitable system. 

These problems opened to genius a brilliant career, which it has 
entirely neglected. 

The dependency of governments is constantly increasing, and the 
ascendency of stock-jobbers and bankers has attained such a height, that 
the operations of the Exchange have become the index of public opin¬ 
ion. If the funds fall, it is an infallible sign that the administration 
is pursuing a wrong policy ; this fall is often the effect of the intrigues 
of stock-gamblers who are more powerful than the ministry. 

As soon as a cabal can put into operation this engine of political 
commotions — this fall in the public funds produced by intrigue — the 
public join in chorus against the policy of the administration. Nothing 
more is necessary to bring undeserved disgrace upon a ministry, and 
often to compromise the welfare of an empire through the intrigues of 
stock-gamblers and speculators. Was ever bondage more thoroughly 
established ? And can any government doubt that it is under the rod 
of these lords of finance whenever the State is in debt ? that is, in 
every civilized nation, since national debts are a disease especially 
characteristic of the Third Phase of Civilization. 

Our philosophers with their pretensions to profound analysis, know 
not how to analyze this monstrosity, and do not perceive in it a trans¬ 
ition of the civilized order from the Third to the Fourth Phase, accord¬ 
ing to the Table next page.* 

* In this Table, Fourier indicates by a few leading characteristics the course of 
Civilization. It applies especially to modern Civilization, although it furnishes some 
means of judging of the Greek and Roman, which reached only tbe second Phase. 

The fundamental feature of the first Phase is Monogamy or exclusive marriage, 
and the concession # of certain civil rights to women; this separates it from Barbar¬ 
ism, with its polygamy and the slavery of woman. The fundamental feature of tbe 
second Phase is the rise of the free towns and cities, and the enfranchisement of 
the Serfs; it is in fact the emancipation of Labor, which did not take place in Greece 
and Rome. The fundamental feature of the third or present Phase is the immense 
and preponderant development of the commercial and industrial interests, and the 
organization of joint-stock companies which are obtaining the monopoly of labor, and 
organizing it in a crude and despotic manner. The fundamental feature of the fourth 
riiase will be a vast coalition of the joint-stock companies, and the regular and en¬ 
tire monopoly of all branches of industry, commerce and banking. This will consti¬ 
tute a new Feudalism, founded by Capital, as the old one was founded by the Sword. 
Under the new Feudalism, Industry and Commerce will be systematized : the work¬ 
ing classes brought under regular and uniform discipline ; order established in the 
industrial affairs of society; a commencement of the organization of Labor made 
and the means thus prepared for a passage to a higher social state. — Eoitor. 

5 




Descending Vibration. Ascending Vibration. 


98 


COMMERCE. 


TABLE OF THE 

PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT OF CIVILIZATION. 

Characteristics of the Entire Period and of each Phase. 

pivots (Individual Characteristic. Selfishness. 

OF THE <( 

Whole Period, i Collective Characteristic. Duplicity of Action. 


INFANCY, OR FIRST PHASE. 

Simple Germ. Exclusive Marriage, or Monogamy. 

Compound Germ. Baronial or Military Feudalism. 

Pivot. Civil Rights of the Wife. 

Counterpoise. Federation of the Great Barons. 

Tone. Illusions in respect to Chivalry. 

ADOLESCENCE, OR SECOND PHASE. 

Simple Germ. Communal Privileges. 

Compound Germ. Cultivation of the Arts and Sciences. 

Pivot. Emancipation of the Serfs. 

Counterpoise. Representative System. 

Tone. Illusions in respect to Liberty. 


APOGEE, OR MATURITY. 

Germs. Nautical Art ; Experimental Chemistry. 

Characteristics. Destruction of Forests ; National Debts. 


VIRILITY, OR THIRD PHASE. 

Simple Germ. Mercantile and Financial Spirit. 

Compound Germ. Joint-stock Companies. 


Pivot. Maritime Monopoly. 


Counterpoise. Anarchical Commerce. 

Tone. Illusions in Political Economy. 


DECLINE, OR FOURTH PHASE. 

Simple Germ. Trust or Loaning Companies. 

Compound Germ. Trades monopolized and controled by Capital. 

Pivot. Industrial Feudalism. 

Counterpoise. Contractors and Managers of the Feudal Mo¬ 

nopolies. 

Tone. Illusions in Association. 


COMMERCE. 


99 


Ascension or Growth. The two phases of ascending vibration or 
movement effect the abolition of personal or direct servitude. 

jDeclension. The two phases of descending movement effect the 
increase of collective or indirect servitude. 

The Apogee is the epoch in which Civilization assumes forms the 
least ignoble ; I do not say the most noble, because this society is 
always ignoble, and varies in its four phases only by shades of Selfish¬ 
ness and Duplicity , which are always dominant because they are the 
Pivots of the civilized mechanism. 

Experimental Chemistry and the Nautical Art are characteristics of 
the Apogee 5 on these two branches of knowledge depend the perfec¬ 
tion of Industry, and the facility of communications. 

As soon as the Civilized Period is provided with these two levers, 
it is ripe for passing to the next higher social Period, and any delay 
becomes prejudicial, since it engenders the four characteristics of the 
descending movement or vibration. In that case, scientific achievements 
become an evil rather than a good. Many of the sciences become in¬ 
jurious and dangerous to the civilizees from the moment they have 
entered the Third Phase. Once possessed of the two characteristics of 
the Apogee, this period is like a ripe fruit which thereafter can only 
deteriorate. Thus the increase of knowledge is desirable in Civiliza¬ 
tion only as maturity is desirable for a fruit 5 as soon as it has 
arrived at the ripe state, it should be put to some use. 

Now what is the use or function of Civilization in the social Move¬ 
ment or the progress by the human race ? It is to advance the race 
to the Sixth Period or Guarantism. As soon as it has acquired all the 
means necessary, it shoidd escape from itself; it should seek for an 
issue, and enter upon Guarantism. If it delays this necessary step, its 
scientific acquisitions are only a burden to it; it grasps more than it 
can carry. 

As a proof of this, do we not see that the nautical art, one of the 
finest achievements of human genius, has already engendered two char¬ 
acteristics of the third phase— mercantile spirit and maritime monopoly 
— together with other calamities which would have had no existence 
in the Sixth Period. The excess of knowledge and of industrial im¬ 
provements has become detrimental to us in the same way that the 
most wholesome food becomes deleterious when taken in improper 
quantities; and it is to exceed the proper measure to remain civilizees 
after we are provided with the levers of the Sixth Period. When we 


100 


COMMENCE. 


have attained the degree of social development which characterizes the 
Apogee of Civilization , we may be compared to the silk-worm which, 
having reached a certain stage of growth, has need to change its form 
and pass to the chrysalis state. 

We had arrived at this industrial maturity as early as the middle 
of the Eighteenth Century; we then possessed the two characteristics 
of the Apogee; an issue from Civilization should have been sought 
without delay. 

The genius necessary to discover this issue, however, was wanting, 
and our sciences have become to us more pernicious than useful: they 
have produced only the germs of social convulsions and of political 
and moral corruption ; in brief, we have traversed the Third Phase, 
and are about to enter the Fourth or the Decline of Civilization. 

Each one of the Four Phases has its point of plenitude or Apogee 
like the entire society itself. It is evident that the Third Phase of 
Civilization has passed the Apogee, since we see the predominance of 
the two essential characteristics which distinguish it. 

Let us remark that during the three Phases of Civilization already 
passed through, philosophy has never coSperated in social improve¬ 
ments, though it arrogates to itself that slight honor; it has always 
been passive in respect to the social Movement. I have already offered 
some suggestions on this point, which I will state anew. 

1st Phase. This Phase arrives at its full by the concession of civil 
rights to the wife. This is something with which the ancient philoso¬ 
phers, like Confucius and those of Egypt and Hindostan, never troubled 
themselves; they did not even manifest an intention to ameliorate the 
condition of woman. The women of antiquity had even less liberty 
than those of the present day; they did not share in the various ama¬ 
tory rights, such as that of divorce, and the moralists were indifferent 
as now to their welfare. 

2i> Phase. Civilization entered upon this Phase by the ameliora¬ 
tion of the system of Servitude. This improvement was the effect of 
the Feudal system ; slavery was first transformed into Serfdom, and 
then the serf population was furnished with the means of collective 
and gradual emancipation. By attaching this class of bondsmen to the 
soil instead of to the individual, it turned to their advantage the be¬ 
nevolence or the selfishness of each feudal lord; and the community 
being able to obtain in one case a concession from the avarice of a 
father, in another a concession from the generosity of a son, advanced 


101 


COMMERCE. 

step by step toward liberty. This is a process of which the ancient 
philosophers had no idea. 

3d Phase This Phase is developed by the influence of the com¬ 
mercial policy, originating in colonial monopoly. This influence was 
not foreseen by the philosophers, and they have discovered no means 
of counterbalancing it, nor even of attacking it in its most oppressive 
form, that of insular monopoly. They have treated the subject of com¬ 
mercial policy only to extol its defects and vices, instead of combating 
them, as they should have done. 

4th Phase. Civilization is tending toward this phase by the influ¬ 
ence of powerful joint-stock companies, w r hich, by forming combinations 
and securing special privileges, will control industrial relations and 
regulate the conditions of labor. These companies conceal the germ 
of a vast feudal confederacy, which will soon obtain control of the 
whole industrial and financial system, and will give rise to a vast 
Commercial Feudalism. This the philosophers have not foreseen, and 
while they are all infatuated with the mercantile spirit, the influence 
and tendencies of which they have so little understood, events are in 
preparation which is to change the existing state of things, and cause 
Civilization to decline into its Fourth Phase. 

But the philosophers do not trouble themselves with providing 
against future storms; they consider the social Movement only in a 
retrograde sense, and occupy themselves with the past and the present 
alone. Now that the commercial spirit is dominant, they will decide 
according to their custom that the present condition of things is the 
highest state of social development. They will restrict themselves to 
glorifying what they see before them, without presuming that the 
Civilized Order may assume new forms. 

And when Civilization shall have arrived at its Fourth Phase, when 
the commercial Feudalism shall be fully established, we shall see the 
philosophers coming in after the change has taken place, and broach¬ 
ing new theories on the subject; we shall see them lauding the Fourth 
Phase with its vices, and writing volumes on the new order, in which 
they will then see the ultimate of human progress as they see it at 
present in the Third Phase with its commercial spirit. 

We shall consider the foregoing Table again, and go into an exam¬ 
ination of the special characteristics of each phase. It is evident that 
Civilization is tending to the Fourth. The absorbing predominance 
of the commercial spirit and power denotes a speedy downfall into 


102 


COMMERCE. 


commercial Feudalism or a universal monopoly of commercial relations, 
an alliance between the monied classes and the nobility or great landed 
proprietors, and a regular division of prerogatives and privileges 
between these two parties already united in interest. 

When we see Civilization elated with this declining and decrepit 
phase of its career, we are reminded of a faded belle who, boasting 
of her attractions in her fiftieth year, excites at once the remark that 
she was fairer at twenty-five. So it is with Civilization ; which, dream¬ 
ing of perfection and progress, is constantly deteriorating, and which 
will find but too soon in its industrial achievements new sources of 
political oppression, crimes and commotions. Commerce is tending to 
a participation in the functions of government, the policy of which is 
already subject to the sanction or the veto of the great bankers and 
capitalists. Theorizers, with their checks and balances, think they see 
in this unnatural alliance a political counterpoise; but it is only a 
league against the producing interests. Combinations like these for the 
purpose of acquiring power, are not political counterpoises; such 
counterpoises should be two-fold or sompound in their action, like that 
of our gold and silver coin, which, from the compound influence of 
foreign exchanges and the value of bullion, obliges government to keep 
it at its standard weight and fineness. 

There is no real equilibrium of this kind in the present system of 
Commerce; on the contrary, it is an abyss of fraud, rapine and an¬ 
archy ; it is an industrial corsair which should be muzzled by some 
kind of restraint. Instead of peeking for a remedy for this state of 
things, the age has become infatuated, with all its excesses and abomi¬ 
nations, under the impression that Commerce is necessary. 

Ten times the amount of commercial transactions will be necessary 
on the establishment of Association, in which production will be three¬ 
fold and the amount of sales ten-fold greater than at present; for the 
demand for foreign commodities will extend to the whole mass of the 
laboring population in all the zones. But however great may be the 
development of the commercial system which shall be then in opera¬ 
tion, it will not be carried on by fraud and deception. 

Let me define more exactly the charges to be brought against the 
present system of Commerce: It is a dishonest agent which produces 
one , and embezzles ten. It is a valet whose services are worth ten 
crowns, and whose thefts amount to a thousand. This will appear 


COMMERCE, 


103 


evident when I come to enumerate the special characteristics of the 
commeicial mechanism. 

Its first spoliation is to employ a hundred agents, when ten would 
suffice in a true system ; the labor of ninety individuals is thus ab¬ 
sorbed in functions which are parasitic, compared with those of a tr e 
system of Commerce. 

The plan of such a system was the problem to be solved ; and the 
sciences should have been held to make an investigation of the true 
commercial method. 

But did not honor oblige scientific men to denounce that system of 
Commerce which constantly tended to engross the control of produc¬ 
tive Industry? Should they not at least have proposed some remedy 
against its encroachments, when the search for such a remedy w'ould 
have been attended with results so highly advantageous ? 

In conformity with a maxim of the philosophers — to proceed in the 
study of all intricate problems by analysis and synthesis — the science of 
Political Economy should have furnished an exact analysis of the char¬ 
acteristics of Commerce ; doubtless it lacked the courage to attempt it, 
for the portrait would not have been very flattering to the golden calf 
It is an omission which I shall repair in this work ; and as nothing 
is more important than to enlighten governments and the producing 
classes as to the enormity>of mercantile extortions, I will present a 
brief analysis in tabular form of the present system of Commerce. 

First I will remark, that we find, among the most intelligent classes, 
men who are in entire ignorance as to the real nature of Commerce. 
In a recent discussion in the public press on the subject, I remarked 
a mass of errors, one of which was to confound Commerce with man¬ 
ufactures. To extol the former, it was stated that the Emperor Napo¬ 
leon, on visiting the vast manufacturing establishment of M. Ober- 
kampf, was so highly pleased that he took the cross of the Legion of 
Honor from his own breast to bestow it upon him. But what had 
this to do with the question of the commercial system ? M. Oberkampf 
was a very useful manufacturer, and so great a stranger to commercial 
Intrigues that two years afterwards he returned the ’ decoration to the 
Emperor, declaring that he could no longer struggle against the machi¬ 
nations of Commerce, which had raised the price of raw materials so 
high that manufacturers were obliged to close their factories and dis¬ 
miss thousands of operatives, leaving them without work. 

In this, M. Oberkampf was only the echo of daily complaints made 


104 


COMMERCE. 


by manufacturers who are constaully embarrassed by the schemes 
sijeculatqrs and monopolists. 

Commerce is the natural enemy of manufactures; while feigning a 
solicitude to supply them with raw materials, it in fact labors only to 
spoliate and render them dependent. So in most of the manufacturing 
towns, it is well known that the manufacturer of small means works 
only for the dealer in raw materials, just as the small farmer often 
works only for the usurer, and as the humble attic student toils for 
the distinguished academician, who stoops to publish under his own 
name the fruit of the vigils of some poor and hired assistant. 

In a word, the merchant is an industrial corsair, living at the ex¬ 
pense of the manufacturer and the producer. To confound the func¬ 
tions of the merchant with those of the manufacturer is to ignore the 
alphabet of economio science. 

Whence comes this extreme ignorance in respect to the commercial 
mechanism ? Evidently from the fact that no one has ever made an 
analysis of Commence, and that men in disputing on the subject have 
had no real knowledge of it. A general idea of the question may be 
obtained by consulting the two following Tables: 


SCALE OF COMMERCIAL METHODS AS THEY EXIST IN THE DIFFERENT 

SOCIAL PERIODS. 


In the Primitive State, 

In the Savage State, 

In the Patriarchal State, 
In the Barbaric State. 

In Civilization, 

In Guarantism, 

In Simple Association, 

In Compound Association, 


1. Payments anticipated. 

2. Barter or Direct Exchange. 

3. Traffic or Indirect Exchange. 

4. Government Monopolies, Established 
Valuations. 

5. Individual Competition. 

6 . Collective and combined Competition. 

7. Continuous Consignments, 
f Anterior Valuations, 

\ Compensations by Arbitration. 


In conformity with the above Table, we must analyze Individual. 
Competition, the fifth or Civilized Method, which is a system of fraud 
and complication, and point out the errors which have prevented the 
human mind from discovering the sixth method — that of Guarantism 
— with its system of combined, direct and equitable exchanges. 

This study will require an analysis of the characteristics of the pra- 
sent or fifth method 5 the following is a Table of them: 


COMMERCE. 


105 


SYNOPTICAL TABLE 
OF THE 

CHARACTERISTICS OF CIVILIZED COMMERCE 

DISTRIBUTED IN A MIXED SERIES. 


Pivots. 


Direct. Collective Interest sacrificed to the Individual. 
Inverse. Intermediate Property. 


1 . Duplicity of Action. 

2. Arbitrary Valuation. 

3. Tolerated Fraud. 

J 4. Absence of Concert and Combination. 

5. Withdrawal of Capital. 

6 . Decreasing Salaries and Wages. 

7. Artificial Gluts or Over-supplies. 

8 . Depressive Abundance. 

9. Inverse Encroachment. 

10 . Policy of Competitive Exclusion. 

r 11 . Stoppage of Circulation, or Want of Credit. 

\ 12. Artificial Money. 

< 13. Fiscal Complication. 

J 14. Fraud and Vice rendered Epidemic. 

^ 15. Obscurantism. 

' 10 . Parasitism. 

17- Forestalling. 

18. Speculation and Stock-jobbing (agiotage). 

1 9. Usury. 

f 20. Fruitless Labor. 

21. Industrial Lotteries. 

' 22. Corporate Monopoly, 
i 23. Fiscal or Governmental Monopoly. 

24. Exotic or Colonial Monopoly. 

I 25. Simple or Maritime Monopoly. 

26. Feudal Monopoly. 
f 27. Provocation to Fraud. 
j 28. Waste and Depreciation. 

1 29. Adulteration. 

( 30. Sanitary Lesion. 

S 31. Bankruptcy. 

32. Smuggling. 

33. Piracy. 

( 34. Maximations : Forced Levies. 

£ 35. Speculation in Slavery. 

36. Universal Selfishness. 

Quadruple Transition, Direct and Inverse, and in Simple and Compound Modes. 

( Commercial Corporations. 

X Collective and Reductive Competition 
( Simple Integral Monopoly. 

) Compound Integral Monopoly. 


See Note II, Appendix, for an explanation of this Table. 




106 


COMMERCE. 


The number of frauds and vices in this Table could be greatly aug¬ 
mented. I should extend it to sixty in a regular treatise on Commerce. 

Among the thirty-six characteristics, several are already known ; for 
example, speculation, usury and bankruptcy. 

But can we find in the voluminous writings of the political econo¬ 
mists a single definition of either of these three characteristics; that is 
to say, a description of 

All kinds of bankrupts ? 

All kinds of usurers ? 

All kinds of monopolists and speculators (agioteurs) ? 

We find nothing of the kind, which is a proof that in all the trea¬ 
tises on Commerce, the first step has not yet been taken, namely, that 
of analysis and definition. A singular omission this on the part of men 
who lay it down as a maxim to proceed by analytic methods. 

The same course has been pursued in respect to all the branches 
of science which have occupied the attention of speculative philosophy: 
its authors do not analyze even the subjects upon which they treat, so 
that, in fact, they have no clear conception of the problems they dis¬ 
cuss. I have shown this in a preceding chapter in respect to liberty, 
an elementary analysis of which has not been made, that is, an analysis 
of its three modes, and of the seven natural rights and their pivots; 
nevertheless, how many volumes have been written on the subject of 
liberty, without the first condition being fulfilled or the first step taken 
required by Philosophy itself, which enjoins on us to proceed by 
analysis and synthesis. 

This should have been the first work of our modern economists 
when they began the study of Commerce ; and after this analytic dis¬ 
section of the monster, their next step was to proceed to the counter¬ 
synthesis, that is, to the construction of a commercial mechanism which 
would guarantee the extirpation of the thirty-six characteristics of false 
Commerce, or individual and anarchical competition. 

A regular study of Commerce, then, like that of Liberty, would 
have led to the conclusion that real and efficient guarantees should 
exist in all branches of the social mechanism—branches of which the 
civilized social Order is wholly destitute. This need being recognized, 
it would have led to researches for a system of general guarantees, 
which constitutes the sixth Period. It. was to this point that the hu¬ 
man mind should have been led; it should have been convinced that 
Civilization is in no sense the ultimate social condition which it 


COMMERCE. 107 

demands, since it calls everywhere for justice, based on guarantees 
which that order cannot secure. 

The analysis of Commerce would also have led men to speculate 
on the means of extending the germs of Association, which we see 
springing up through the economic instinct of the merchants. A study 
of the development of these germs might have led to important discov¬ 
eries in Association. Thus a methodical analysis of Commerce would 
have opened to the world several avenues of social progress. 

Not only no positive knowledge has been acquired in respect to 
this subject, as I have shown by the two Tables of Methods and Char¬ 
acteristics, which should have been the first in a regular analysis, but 
the question has been obscured to the extent of confounding Commerce 
with Manufactures, of which it is the natural enemy, and of subordi¬ 
nating the latter to the various interests of the former. We see our 
manufacturers systematically sacrificed to the machinations of monopoly 
and speculation. 

So long as a false system is popular and universally upheld, no 
one seekg to correct it; and this explains why it is that it has not 
occurred to our age to undertake a reform of our fraudulent commer¬ 
cial system; governments and religion have been assailed, while the 
remedy for our social evils was to be found in a reform of Commerce, 
an agency which has secured to itself the respect even of sovereigns, 
though it is their greatest enemy, since it leads them into national 
loans, which are the most fruitful cause of revolution; it is to them 
what the usurer is to a young man of family. 

Commerce is the weak side of Civilization, the point at which it 
should have been attacked. It is secretly hated by rulers and peoples; 
in no country does the class of landed proprietors and producers look 
with a favorable eye upon the parvenues who, entering our cities bare¬ 
foot,. soon make their hundreds of thousands. The honest landholder 
cannot understand this sudden accumulation of wealth ; whatever care 
he may give to the management of his estate, he succeeds with diffi¬ 
culty in adding a few hundred dollars to his income ; the profits of 
speculators and stock-jobbers amaze him; he would give utterance 
to his astonishment, and express his suspicions of the whole system, 
but he is silenced by the political economists who hurl their anathe¬ 
mas against any one who dares to criticise u le commerce immense et 
V immense commerce .” 

Some governments have endeavored by coercive measures to put a 


108 


COMMERCE. 


stop to the excesses of commercial speculation and stock-jobbing. But 
they failed. It is not by force that the mercantile hydra is to be over¬ 
thrown ; it is a serpent which has coiled itself around Civilization, and 
resistance only causes it to contract its folds closer than before. There 
was but one means of opposing commercial rapine, and that was the 
discovery of a true and equitable system of Commerce; a discovery 
of the highest importance, as it would have greatly increased the re¬ 
sources of governments, Avhile doubling at the same time the profits of 
productive Industry; for the Sixth Society, that of Guarantism, yields 
a product double that of Civilization, and we enter upon Guarantism 
from the moment that we organize equitable commerce in the place of 
free competition, which is only a compound of fraud and complication. 

The present system of Commerce — the false and fraudulent system 
— was the growth of circumstances and accident. It is not a work of 
design, but the result of a rude and simple impulse — the tendency of 
the individual seller to defraud as much as possible for his own 
interest. 

Never did a system better deserve condemnation as beihg vicious 
and corrupt; and it is clear that it should be counterbalanced by 
some means of guarantee against individual frauds, by some agency 
organized in such a maimer as to unmask and prevent its extortions. 
With such a guarantee the commercial system would be changed from 
simple to compound; it would become whatT the grafted is to the wild 
fruit. 

Now what is the power by the intervention of which commercial 
frauds can be repressed ? It is the government. I shall point out in 
the treatise on equitable Commerce in what manner this intervention 
should be exercised. 

I am aware that in the present Order it is not admissible; that if 
the government should interfere with the system of simple or fraudu¬ 
lent Commerce, the effect upon general Industry would be pernicious; 
but under the compound system, if the government should cease a mo¬ 
ment to intervene for the guarantee of truth, everything would be 
thrown into disorder; just as false weights and measures would be¬ 
come general, if the administration should for.a moment relax its strict 
supervision. 

' How should this intervention be exercised? What should be the 
mode? We have an example of the true mode under our eyes in 
weights, measures and the metallic currency; these are the only 


COMMERCE. 


100 


branches of our commercial relations in which there exists practical 
truth; and yet they are under the exclusive regulation of the govern¬ 
ment— which is a very different thing from that fraudulent license 
that reigns in Commerce, and produces only fraud, anarchy and the 
multiplication of parasitic agents to ten times the number necessary. 

If the Economists were really in pursuit of the truth, they should 
study to assimilate the commercial to the monetary system; the latter 
is not a simple government monopoly, like that of tobacco, for example, 
in France, but a system counterbalanced by the double check of com¬ 
mercial exchange and the value of bullion, which, as I have said, 
obliges the mint to maintain the coinage at a standard fineness. The 
gold and silver currency is, then, a, compound fiscal monopoly, which, 
as in all operations of the compound order, insures practical truth. 

Reformers who recommend us to proceed from the known to the 
unknown, had here before them a fine guide; they might have made 
an application of the system by organizing Commerce also as a coun¬ 
terbalanced monopoly, controled like the coinage by the State. . This 
would have been the means of realizing commercial truth, which would 
have led by degrees to Association. 

A sense of honor should have induced men of science to undertake 
this study. They are now openly sneered at by the merchants ; with 
the banker and stock-jobber, the name of savaut is an object of deri¬ 
sion. Hence science, to defend its honor against the outrages of this 
tribe of parvenues, as well as to establish the reign of truth, should 
have sought for means to correct the commercial system which it se¬ 
cretly despises, and to raise it from the simple and fraudulent mode to 
the compound and equitable. It would have found in this discovery 
an avenue to fortune for governments, for the people, and for men of 
science themselves. It has preferred the policy of. truckling; it has 
servilely flattered traffic and stock-gambling, and has extolled their 
frauds and speculation, and has made the interests of Commerce the 
rule of practical action. In thus neglecting a study which honor and 
the love of truth alike imposed upon it, it has failed in discovering 
the most direct issue from Civilization ; it has misled the social world, 
and lost itself. 


In execution of the plan I proposed to myself in developing the 
Theory of the Combined Order, it was necessary to proceed by succes- 



110 


COMMERCE, 


sive steps, to give first a mere outline of the subject treated: then 
abridged Essays on the same, and, lastly, a full Treatise. 

In conformity with this method, I have limited myself in treating 
the questions of Liberty and Commerce to a summary exposition of 
the errors prevalent on these subjects. If I had gone more into details, 
I should have violated the plan which I had decided to follow. 

The more especial object of these sketches was to prove the error 
of the prevalent opinion that the secrets of Nature are impenetrable 
mysteries, and to show that the most valuable scientific discoveries were 
more frequently the result of chance than of the diligent efforts of genius. 
If our men of science will not undertake a methodical study of the 
laws of Nature, she certainly is under no obligation to reveal them, 
any more than she is bound to bestow harvests on the cultivator who 
will not plough or sow 




CHAPTER SEVENTH. 


EXAMINATION OP QUESTIONS WHICH ARE WITHOUT THE PALE QP THOUGHT 
AND CONTROVERSY IN CIVILIZATION —CONTINUED. 

PASSrONAL ATTRACTION, 

AND THE SEVEN-EOLD GUARANTEE WHICH IT ESTABLISHES BETWEEN GOD AND MAN. 

This first study of Passional Attraction will be purely abstract. 
I shall not treat of any of ils special applications, but consider it only 
from a general point of view, reserving details for the body of the 
work. For example, I shall not here explain the three centers or 
foci of Attraction, which are, 

1. Luxury. 2. Groups. 3. Series. Pivot, Unity. 

Riches. Affections. Association. Harmony, 

nor the twelve essential motors or radical passions: 

Five Sensuous, tending to Luxury,* 1st focus; 

Four Appectional, tending to Groups, 2d focus; 

Three Distributive, tending to Series, 3d focus; 

Pivotal, tending to Unity. 

Before entering upon these details which do not properly belong to 
a preliminary essay, it is necessary in the first place to establish the 
essential goodness of Attraction, its function as a permanent interpre¬ 
ter to Man of the Divine Will, and the necessity of taking it for guide 
in any social Order in which we would follow the designs of God, se¬ 
cure the reign of truth and justice, and realize Social Unity. 

To prove that Attraction is a perfect agent or motor in social me¬ 
chanics, that it will impel and direct Humanity rightly in the path of 
its social Destiny, that it is the interpreter of the Divine Will, I com¬ 
mence by an enumeration of the seven guarantees which it will estab¬ 
lish reciprocally between God and Man — guarantees not one of which 


*By Luxury is to be understood, material abundance, elegance, splendor and 
harmony, that is, everything necessary to satisfy the physical wants and charm the 
senses. — Editor. 



112 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


can be obtained by confiding the direction of the social world to human 
reason, — or to legislation, the result of that reason. 

TABLE OP THE SEVEN GUARANTEES WHICH ATTRACTION ESTABLISHES 

BETWEEN GOD AND MAN.* 

1. An Infallible Guide and a Permanent Pevelation of the Divine 


* By Passional Attraction is to be understood, as we have before remarked, the 
Attraction of the Passions , that is, the influence which they exercise in drawing or 
attracting man to the objects which will satisfy them ; and by the Passions are to 
be undei’stood those springs of action, those forces or motors in him which impel 
him to action. The name given them is of very little consequence, provided we know 
exactly what it designates. Fourier calls them Passions — a kind of proscribed name 
in Civilization, as they are seen for the most part in their incoherent development; 
but by Passions, he means simply the Forces or Motors implanted in man by Nature 
to impel him to act and fulfill his function and destiny in creation. From Passion 
Fourier derives the adjective Passional, and by Passional Attraction he indicates 
simply the power — impelling or attractive — which those motors exercise on man. 

We assert the proposition — which to us appears self-evident — that Passional 
Attraction is good, a perfectly true guide, a Divine impelling force ; for the Passions 
must be the work of that Power and Wisdom which holds the helm of the universe, 
and their play and action must have been calculated by the same supreme Reason 
which regulates all the other forces of creation. 

But on the other hand, it will be asserted that it is equally self-evident that 
Passional Attraction and the Passions from which it derives, are bad, for the effects 
to which they give rise, such*as deceit, lying, drunkenness, cruelty, injustice, theft, 
murder, etc., are bad and Vicious. 

How can these two radically opposite views be reconciled ? How can the belief 
in the original and abstract goodness of the Passions and Passional Attraction be 
harmonized with the bad results which they produce, — with their present practical 
and concrete action, which is evidently false and vicious ? 

These apparant contradictions can easily be explained if we take into considera¬ 
tion two fundamental laws which govern the development of the Passions. The first 
is, that the Passions, like all other forces or active agents in creation, are subject to 
a twofold mode of development and action, one of which is false, or — as Fourier terms 
it — subversive, while the other is true and harmonic. The Passions are deranged 
in their action and forced into a state of subversive development in the five follow¬ 
ing modes. 

1. They are misdirected. A single illustration, drawn from Ambition, will ex¬ 
plain this. The passion ambition — whose focus of attraction is fame, distinction, 
glory, power —acting in the soul of a Napoleon and directed to war and conquest, 
covers a continent with havoc and devastation, whereas the same Passion, directed, 
for example to industrial creation, would cover it with mighty works of internal im¬ 
provement. The Passion is the same in both cases : the effects only are different; 
and this teaches us that we must not lake the effects of the Passions for the Passions 
themselves. Ambition is a noble motor; without it man, like the animal, would be 
devoid of aspiration—without high and noble aims ; its Attraction is a Divine impulse, 
a true guide ; but when misdirected, it may produce *the greatest disorders and evils. 



PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


113 


Will in social relations, inasmuch as Attraction stimulates us constantly 
by impulses as invariable in all time and in all places as the teachings 
of reason are variable and deceptive. 

2. Economy of means , by the employment of a motor combining in 
itself the properties of revealer and guide — a motor which, at the same 
time, reveals to man the Divine Will and prompts him to fulfill it. 


The intellectual faculties are in like manner misdirected, of which we have abundant 
examples in political intrigues, commercial frauds, gambling, etc. 

2. The Passions are developed inversely. When these forces are violated, 
disappointed, outraged or thwarted in their action, they are driven in upon them¬ 
selves, and take an inverse or inverted development; they then engender sentiments 
or emotions which are exactly the opposite of their true nature ; their natural sym¬ 
pathies become so many antipathies. In this way, philanthropy, when long vio¬ 
lated or disappointed, turns to misanthropy ; benevolence to malevolence ; love to 
hatred; confidence and devotion to jealousy and revenge, and thus through the en¬ 
tire scale of the passional forces. Violate and thwart, for example, a man’s ambition, 
and it will turn to hatred and a desire for revenge, which will be strong exactly in 
proportion to the strength of the passions violated. The passional forces, in their 
inverse development, lead to the commission of deeds of violence and of crimes, which 
make them appear vicious and depraved, and this has caused in all ages their denun¬ 
ciation and condemnation. To understand the enigma, which has so long misled human 
reason as to the real nature of the Passions, we must know that, like all other 
forces, they are subject to a dual or double development, which gives rise to two 
classes of elfects, the one good, the other evil. This dual action runs through all 
Nature, and everywhere produces similar effects. In this connection I will indicate 
a law which governs the action of the Passions : it is that the antagonist or subver¬ 
sive sentiments, such as envy, jealousy, hatred, revenge, are not spontaneously active, 
that is they do not act of themselves ; it is only when the Passions are violated or 
thwarted that those subversive emotions appear ; they are dormant, passive, latent and 
incapable of self-action, while the harmonic passional impulses are spontaneously ac¬ 
tive, positive and self-determining. Thus man is naturally, positively good, — arti¬ 
ficially, negatively bad ; he tends to good spontaneously ; he is impelled to evil 
circumstantially. In a social Order perfectly adapted to the Passions, and securing 
their free and natural development, they would produce on earth the reign of good, 
that is, passional harmony. 

3. The Passions are hrought into collision and conflict with each other. 
Taste, for example, seeks the pleasures of the table, and may lead for its gratifica¬ 
tion to extravagant expenditures : this violates avarice (a shade of ambition) : they 
come in collision, and a conflict ensues. This single example will explain what we 
mean by the conflict of the Passions; they are all at present more or less at war with 
each other, and this constitutes the battle of the Passions in the soul, which is gen¬ 
eral in the subversive societies. 

4. The Passions are developed in their lower degrees. The Senses, for 
example, in this state, that is, uncultivated and unrefined, lead to sensuality, gross¬ 
ness and vulgarity. Taste leads to gluttony; sight to tawdry forms and colors; 
hearing to noise and racket. The same Senses, developed in their higher degrees 
and refined by cultivation, lead to material elegance, refinement, splendor and bar- 



114 


FASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


1 


3. Sympathetic concert between the creature and the Creator , or recon¬ 
ciliation of the free-will of man, obeying from pleasure, and the author¬ 
ity of God, ordaining that pleasure through the impulse of Attraction. 

4. Combination of the useful with the agreeable , by imparting At¬ 
traction to productive labors, to which it would impel us as it would 
to the performance of every design of the Creator, of whose will it is 
the interpreter. 

5. Abolition of all coercive means for the maintenance of public order , 
snch as prisons, scaffolds, police organizations, courts of justice and 


mony. The social affections, which are the source of the love of our fellow-creatures, 
engender, when developed in their lower degrees, exclusiveness, selfishness and often 
injustice. To what injustice do not exclusive friendships, exclusive family affections, 
for example, give rise ? The same Passions, developed in their higher degrees, and 
embracing in their sympathies a wide range, become benevolence, philanthropy, 
devotion, magnanimity and other generous sentiments. 

5. The Passions are developed in excess, that is, one class in preponderance 
over another. When the Senses or material attractions are developed in excess so as 
to overrule and control, for example, the social affections, — as is the case generally 
in Civilization, — they engender materialism and selfishness, and lead to a disregard 
of the rights and interests of others. This has caused the moralists to exclaim against 
human nature, declaring that its natural tendency to selfishness is an insurmountable 
obstacle to the establishment of a true Order of society on earth. Had any thorough 
analysis of the Passions been made, it would have been seen that selfishness and 
materialism are the result of the preponderance of the Senses, — which tend to self,— 
— over the social Passions, — which tend to Humanity,—and that they are not a 
natural and inherent characteristic of human nature, but an effect of the unbal¬ 
anced development of the passional forces, produced b 3 r the poverty, repugnant labor, 
the precariousness of existence and other imperfect conditions of the Subversive So¬ 
cieties. The simple truth is that Humanity is still in its social Infancy, and during 
this Infancy, the material principle, represented by the Senses, is preponderant, as it 
is in the infancy of the individual man : this preponderance is necessary to the ac¬ 
complishment of the preliminary material labors necessary to enable Humanity to 
attain to its social Destiny. Were the social Affections developed as much in excess 
as the Senses now are, they would lead to a benevolent wastefulness, an unwise gen¬ 
erosity, which would be more injurious to the interests of society, to its progress, 
than selfishness now is. 

These five modes of passional derangement are the most evident and the most 
easily understood, though others could be mentioned, such as 6th, Monomania, pro¬ 
duced by the prolonged repression of a predominant Passion ; 7th, Insanity, produced 
by an intense violation, disappointment or irritation of some one of the Passions, 
giving it an entire preponderance, and thereby destroying their internal balance, and 
the link or rational connection between them and the outward world — the excited 
Passion becoming the center or pivot of the passional system, and displacing con¬ 
sciousness, which is their unity; 8th. or pivotally, confirmed Misanthropy and Athe¬ 
ism, which are an inversion, morally and intellectually, of the religious sentiment 
produced by the aspect of the social disorders and the excess of suffering which 
reign on the earth. 



PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


115 


other parasitic agencies which the Civilized Order is obliged to employ 
to support the laws and enforce the prosecution of repugnant labor. 

6, Collective recompense of Worlds that are obedient to Attraction, 
by the delight of living under the Divine attractive regime; and col¬ 
lective punishment of Worlds rebellious to Attraction, effected wilho; t 
violence, by the cravings of unsatisfied desire or the martyrdom of At¬ 
traction, which i,s a negative punishment for globes persisting in living 
under the false and arbitrary laws of men. 


The conclusion we draw from the preceding analysis is this: We believe on 
general principles that the Passions are good ; that they are motors given to Man by 
that Supreme Wisdom which distributes all the forces, spiritual and material, of the 
universe, to direct him to fulfill his destiny ; but that, like all other forces, they 
may be misdirected and deranged in their action, and that they then produce disor¬ 
der, discord and evil, — and in a degree which is in exact proportion to the harmony 
to which they would give rise, if they were normally developed. This disorder and 
evil are effects of the Passions, and we must not, as we have said, mistake the effects 
for the causes, — mistake their perversions for their essential nature. We do not 
condemn steam, because in machinery unsuited to its action, it produces explosions 
and destroys all around it; we do not condemn musical instruments, because in un¬ 
skillful hands they produce discords; we do not condemn an organic body which, 
in a state of decay, emits a disagreeable odor ; observation has shown us that this 
dual Movement runs through all Nature, and we accept it as a Law. It applies equally 
to the Passions, and it explains why they are subject to the same principle of dual 
development. 

This is the first important fact to be known in the study of human nature. The 
second is, that the social Organism or Mechanism must be perfectly suited to the 
Tassions. to their requirements and their mode of action. The latter is, so to say, 
the body of the former, and it is a law which is universal in its application, that 
external organisms must be adapted to internal moving forces. 

Fourier does not hold that Attraction is to be taken as a guide in the present 
false social Order, called Civilization, in which it cannot act naturally and harmoni¬ 
ously. He knows that when the Passions are thwarted and perverted in their action, 
their Attractions are false, and lead to discordant and vicious results. What he as¬ 
serts is, that the Passions and their attractions are, in principle, good ; that they are 
the motors which God has implanted in man to impel him to fulfill his Destiny, and 
that in an Order of Society suited to them, and in which they can act according to 
their real or essential nature, they would be true guides, and effect and secure the 
seven guarantees which he describes. 

Moralists and legislators have, in all ages, supposed that the Passions must 
adapt, or be made to adapt themselves to the social Order in existence — not that the 
social Order should be adapted to the Passions ; in other words, Man must be adapted 
to human laws and institutions, not laws and institutions to Man. This error is 
similar to that which supposed the sun to revolve around the earth, instead of the 
earth around the sun. The social policy of the past must he changed, and the legis¬ 
lators of the future must seek to establish a social system, which is adapted to hu¬ 
man nature, and which will secure to the Divine agent — Attraction — its normal 
action. — Editor. 



116 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


7. Concert of Reason with Nature , or the guarantee of attaining to 
wealth and happiness which are the aim of nature, by the practice of 
truth and justice which are the aim of sound reason, and which can 
exist only in Association, based on Attractive Industry. 

Inverse Pivot. Internal Unity or peace of Man with himself and 
the end of the internal war which the present social Order creates in 
each individual, by placing the passions or attractions in conflict with 
reason and the law, neither of which can be satisfied by a sacrifice of 
the other. 

Direct Pivot. External Unity in the relations of man with God 
and the Universe. As the universe • communicates with God only by 
means of Attraction, as every created being, from the planet to the 
insect, attains to harmony only by following the impulses of Attraction, 
duplicity of system would reign in Nature, if man had to follow 
any other guide than Attraction in order to attain to the destiny 
assigned to him by God — that is, to social Harmony and Unity. 

Such is the basis upon which I shall establish the worth and excel¬ 
lence of Attraction in social mechanics, and the inadequacy and incom¬ 
petency of human legislation to direct the social Movement. Legisla¬ 
tion produces results exactly the opposite of those described in the 
above Table, and, in addition, duplicity of action or absence of the 
spirit of God, whose essential characteristic in the government of the 
Universe is Unity of System. 

In no age have men reasoned more than in ours upon the unity 
of the Universe; it is the favorite theme of the philosophers. There 
exists, however, in all their theories a surprising oversight; they have 
left Man out. They refuse to him all unitary Destiny: 1st, Unity of 
man with himself, or accord between the Passions and Reason; 2d, 
Social unity, or unity of races and nations, living under one Order of 
Society; 3d, Unity with God and with the universe, or capacity of 
being directed as are worlds and their creatures by the agent of God, 
which is Attraction, the only agent which at the same time reveals and 
impels, interprets his social laws and secures their execution by the 
charm of the seven guarantees. 

Let us consider the first of these Unities, overlooked by the philos¬ 
ophers, namely, Unity between the Passions and Reason. 

Civilization and the other subversive societies, in preventing man 
from being governed and directed by Attraction and in subjecting him 


PASSIONAL ATTIi A OTION. 


117 


to the dominion of human reason with its coercive laws,* places him in 
antagonism with Divinity, and excludes him from the plan of universal 
Unity. 

As l nity cannot admit of two opposite and conflicting motors like 
Attraction and Compulsion, it is evident that whatever is governed by 
Compulsion or Constraint is out of unity with God and the universe | 
and that if we would conform to this unity, we must discover an 
attractive social regime, that is, an order of society based on Attraction. 

Our theories of unity, then, rendered it Obligatory upon us to study 
Passional Attraction, especially since Newton’s success in the material 
branch ’ everything indicated that it would reveal some great mystery. 

When we reflect that Attraction is the interpreter and motor of 
Harmony for creations both superior and inferior to man, that it har¬ 
monizes by its impulse alone the planets and the industrial insects 
(such as the bee and the ant), we might well be surprised that it 
should not in like manner ordain laws of unity and harmony for man, 
who is a creature between the planet and the insect. This apparent 
exception to the general rule compels us to choose between the follow¬ 
ing alternatives: 

1. If Attraction, which is Ihe sole interpreter of the laws of Unity 
and Harmony, does not reveal those laws to man. God, then, has ex¬ 
cluded him from the plan of universal Unity ; in this case the Creator 
would be unjust toward us, and his providence would not be univer¬ 
sal, since it would not extend to the first of our collective wants — 


* This statement contains an important truth, but it is imperfectly expressed, that 
is, in too absolute a sense — without regard to social circumstances and conditions, 
as is the case with many of Fourier’s statements. It can hardly be said that Civil¬ 
ization does this ; it is the result of the state of development of man’s spiritual or 
passional nature, and the condition of society. The same idea might be expressed as 
follows : 

The Passions in the subversive societies being undeveloped or misdeveloped, do 
not direct man rightly and in the path of his Destiny, and cannot consequently serve 
him as guide. It is necessary to check, repress and regulate their action ; Reason 
lays down rules and regulations — which it deduces from the state and condition of 
society, from its necessities—for their government, that is, it legislates for them ; the 
Passions—or the Attractions — are forced to conform to these laws; man cannot 
consequently obey his Attractions ; he is withdrawn from their control and guidance, 
and placed under that of reason and legislation. We will add that as happiness 
consists in the satisfaction of the Attractions, it is sacrificed by this social neces¬ 
sity’ ; in addition, the Passions and Reason are placed in conilict with each other, 
and Man in a state of warfare with himself. — Editor. 



118 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


that of a system of Divine laws for the regulation of our social 
relations. 

2 . If, on the other hand, man is permitted by God to participate 
in the unitary plan of the Universe, it follows that the system of Social 
Unity to which he destines us must be interpreted by Attraction, which 
is the Oracle of God—an oracle that has never yet been studied. 

There can be no hesitation in choosing between these two alterna¬ 
tives ; the first is wholly inadmissible; to pretend that God has de¬ 
nied to us a unitary social Code would be absurd, so long as we refuse 
to consult the Divine Oracle — Attraction — the only known mode of 
revelation between God and his creatures in all that relates to social 
and industrial Harmony. 

(It must be observed that I do not speak here of religious revela¬ 
tions, which are wholly foreign to the question under consideration.) 

If the philosophers had devoted to this subject a single one of the 
centuries they have devoted to metaphysical and other controversies, if 
they had, without any success, endeavored by methodical studies of 
Attraction and by practical experiments to ascertain to what social 
mechanism it tends, and if after all their laborious researches they had 
discovered nothing satisfactory, they would at the most have been au¬ 
thorized to assume one of the following alternatives : 

Either a neglect on the part of the Creator to devise for man a 
social Code revealed by Attraction, as he has done for the planetary 
and insect worlds. 

Or incompetency on the part of human reason, which up to the 
present time has failed to discover that Code, as it failed for a long 
period in making other important discoveries, as, for example, the mari¬ 
ner’s compass. 

A similar failure in respect to the Divine Social Code should lead 
us rather to accuse human reason of incompetency or of defective meth¬ 
ods, than to accuse Providence of having overlooked the first of man’s 
collective wants, that of a unitary Passional Code 5 for we could not sus¬ 
pect the Creator of such an oversight without denying all his attributes. 

Radical Attribute. Integral regulation of Movement by Attraction. 



PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


119 


If God has not devised for us a Social Code, revealed by Attrac¬ 
tion, he is wanting in all these attributes. 

j Radical Attribute. He is uot the integral Regulator of Movement, 
if our globe in its social career is abandoned forever to the direction 
of human reason with its coercive arbitrary Laws. 

1. lie violates the principle of Economy of Means, since in aban¬ 
doning us to the coercive methods of Reason, he does not secure the 
economy resulting from the seven guarantees already enumerated. 

2. He disregards the principle of Distributive Justice, in refusing 
to us the advantage of a guide which he could have given to us as 
he has to other creations, and the absence of which he knows cannot 
be supplied by human reason. 

3. His Providence is not universal, since he has not provided for 
the most important of the collective wants of Humanity. 

Pivotal Attribute. He establishes Duplicity of System in crea¬ 
tion, if he excludes man from the scheme of Universal Unity. 

These imputations against the Creator, which are contrary to all 
the teachings of religion and of common sense, would in each instance 
cause the suspicion of error and incapacity to fall upon human reason 
and its defective methods of investigation,—methods which should cer¬ 
tainly be distrusted, for they have failed in many instances for thou¬ 
sands of years to lead to the simplest inventions and discoveries. These 
methods should be equally distrusted in social matters, since during 
all antiquity the champions of popular liberty neither discovered nor 
even sought a method for the emancipation of the slaves who composed 
the great body of the people. After such neglect, it is not at all sur¬ 
prising that up to the present day the most urgent of all studies, 
namqly, that of Association and of Passional Attraction has been 
overlooked. 

This study would not have been deferred for a moment, if men had 
discovered and reflected on the radical attribute of God — the faculty 
which he alone possesses of regulating Movement, by distributing to all 
beings attractions and repulsions, adapted to the execution of his 
designs. 

Let us examine the consequences of this attribute, possessed exclu¬ 
sively by the Deity. 

Attraction is, in the hands of God, an enchanted wand which 
enables him to obtain by the allurements of love and pleasure what 
man knows how to obtain only by coercion and violence. It transforms 


120 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


functions, the most repugnant in themselves into enjoyments. What 
can be more repulsive, for example, than the uncleanly offices incident 
to the care of a new-born infant? What does God do to transform 
these repulsive functions into pleasures ? He gives to the mother Pas¬ 
sional Attraction for them; he simply uses his magic prerogative of 
imparting Attraction. From that moment, labors, in themselves the 
most repugnant, are transformed into pleasures. 

To estimate the value of this exclusive prerogative of God, let us 
suppose it possessed by some ambitious monarch. Such a monarch, 
once invested with the power of imparting Attraction, would have 
no need either of tribunals or armies to cause his laws to be executed, 
and to bring the whole world under his empire. It would suffice him 
to give to all nations an Attraction for the system he desired to estab¬ 
lish. Let us suppose, for example, that it was for our delectable Civiliza¬ 
tion with its policy of spoliation and war; as soon as he had imparted 
Attraction for this fortunate Order, the people would hasten to carry 
their savings to the tax-gatherers; the young men would vie with each 
other in their ardor to enlist in his armies; the Savage tribes would 
engage with delight in the Industry which they now abhor: the Bar¬ 
barians would disperse their seraglios and adopt the customs of Civil¬ 
ization. In addition, such a monarch would impart to all other sov¬ 
ereigns, far or near, an Attraction for recognizing his sujwemacy: they 
would hasten to send ambassadors to do him homage and to proclaim 
him Arch-monarch of the globe. And since every sovereign and peo¬ 
ple would find their happiness in the measures which this monarch had 
invested with the charm of Attraction, it must be admitted that the 
ruler who should be the exclusive possessor of this talisman would be 
foolish indeed if he resorted to any other means, such as coercion, pun¬ 
ishment or war: such a course would imply wilful malignity and 
arrant stupidity in him, for in addition to inflicting misery upon his 
subjects and upon neighboring states, he would fail in his plan of uni¬ 
versal supremacy through the resistance and despair of nations ; whereas 
by employing the magic lever of Attraction, he would at the end of a 
few years be in peaceful possession of the entire globe, without having 
incurred the least expense, run any risk, or dissatisfied any individual. 

Such is the relation of God to his creatures; exclusive possessor 
of the most powerful of motors, of the talisman of Attraction, would 
he not become their persecutor and fail in his designs if, neglecting 
an agency so efficient, he shoufd have recourse to any other lever than 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 121 

Attraction for ruling the Universe, and regulating according to one 


plan of unity 
1 . 

all branches of Movement ? 

The Material, 

Earth. 


2. 

The Organic, 

Water. 


3. 

The Aromal, 

Aroma. 


4. 

The Instinctual, 

Air. 

Pivotal. 

The Social or Passional, 

Fire. 


Let us not spare repetitions in a question of such high importance; 
they are absolutely necessary. 

We see that God employs the lever of Attraction alone in directing 
planets and suns, which are creations immensely superior to us, and 
the insect world which is far inferior to us. Could man alone, then, 
have been excluded Trom being guided to his social Destiny by Attrac¬ 
tion ? Why this interruption in the order and system of the universe? 
IIow is it that Attraction, the Divine interpreter for the planetary and 
animal creations, and sufficient to lead them to harmony, is not also 
sufficient for man, who is a creation midway between the two ? Where 
is the Unity of the Divine system, if the motor of universal harmony 
— Attraction — is not applicable to man as it is to the planetary and 
animal creation ? if, in other words, Attraction is not applicable to his 
social relations, and particularly to Industry which is the Pivot of the 
social mechanism. Here are condensed in a short space important 
truths; they are among those which should be engraved in letters of 
gold. 

The exercise of Industry, which is a delight for certain animals, such 
as the beaver, the bee and the ant, is for man a burden from which 
ho seeks to escape the moment he enjoys his liberty. The masses in 
Civilization aspire only to a life of indolence and ease, and the Savage 
says to an enemy as his bitterest imprecation: “May you be compelled 
to till the earth.” 

But since we are evidently destined by God to agricultural and 
manufacturing Industry, how is it that, up to the present time, we find 
emanating from his wisdom, no social Code for the regulation of our 
industrial relations, no natural attraction for labor? How is it that 
labor, which is said to be our destiny, is a scourge for the slaves and 
hirelings of Barbarism and Civilization, who seek only to rebel against 
it, and would abandon it at once if they were not restrained by the 
fear of punishments or by want ? Labor, nevertheless, as we have re¬ 
marked-, is the delight of various creatures, such as the beaver, the bee 
G 


122 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


and the ant, which are perfectly free to remain idle; but God has 
planned for them an industrial system which attracts them to labor, 
and causes them to find' their happiness in it. Why has he not be¬ 
stowed on man the same benefit as on these creatures ? What a differ¬ 
ence between their industrial condition and ours. A Russian or an 
Algerine works from fear of the lash; an Englishman or a Frenchman 
from fear of starvation, which is always at the threshold of their mis¬ 
erable homes; the laboring classes of ancient Greece and Rome, of 
whose liberty we hear so much, were slaves, and worked from fear of 
punishment, like the negroes of the present day. 

Such is the happiness of man in the absence of a system of Attrac¬ 
tive Industry; such the results of human wisdom and human legis¬ 
lation ; they reduce Humanity to a condition inferior to that of the 
industrial animals, for which Attraction transforms labors into pleasures. 

How great would be our happiness, had God done for us what he 
has done for those animals — had he imparted to us Attraction for the 
labors to which he has destined us! Life for us would have become 
a constant succession of enjoyments, from which would have flowed 
unbounded wealth; whereas, in the absence of a system of attractive 
Industry, we are but a society of slaves, of whom a few contrive to 
escape from labor and combine together to maintain themselves in idle¬ 
ness ; these are hated by the majority who seek like them to emanci¬ 
pate themselves from labor. Hence arise commotions and revolutions, 
the leaders of which promise the people to render them rich and happy; 
but, when once they have attained their ends by some political change, 
they spoliate the masses and subjugate them more than ever in order 
to live in idle ease, or what is the same thing, become the directors of 
the labors of others. 

In this wretched state, we may well envy the lot of the industrial 
animals, and murmur against Providence which would appear to have 
had more solicitude for them than for us; for if our philosophic theo¬ 
ries are to be believed. Providence has assigned to us neither a code 
of social laws, nor a fixed system of Industry, nor industrial attraction 
to give a charm to the labors to which we are destined, nor even a 
guarantee of labor, repulsive as it is, which cannot always be obtained 
by those who depend upon it for a subsistence, and which is insuffi¬ 
cient to those who do obtain it, for more commonly they labor for a 
master than for themselves—a wrong that will not exist in the Com¬ 
bined Order, in which every individual, man, woman and child, will 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


123 


receive a share of the profits of Industry, proportionate to his or her 
capital, labor and talent. 

In vain do our legislators and economists hope by their theories 
and laws to supply the, 5 place of an attractive industrial code; in vain 
do they pledge themselves in their innumerable constitutions to secure 
to the masses prosperity and happiness; with all their wisdom and 
legislation, Industry continues to be repugnant, and the seven social 
scourges are as deeply rooted as ever. Do not these shameful results 
show the worthlessness of all these theories ? 

, Besides, if Humanity is to make its own laws, if there is no need 
for Providence to intervene in our legislation, then God must have 
judged our reason to be superior in legislative conceptions to his own. 

Now one of twf> things must be true: either God did not know 
how to compose a social code for us, or he did not wish to do so. 

If the first, how could he have supposed that our feeble reason 
would succeed in a task to which his own was unequal ? If the latter, 
how can our legislators hope to construct the social fabric of which 
God would deprive us? 

Will it be pretended that God wished to leave to human reason the 
exclusive control and direction of the social Movement ? That he has 
delegated to man the function of legislator, though better able assuredly 
to exercise it himself? That he wished to reserve this field to the 
political genius of Humanity ? 

Our experiments for three thousand years prove clearly enough 
that human reason is unequal to the task. God must have foreseen 
that all our legislators, from Solon to those of the present day, would 
succeed only in perpetuating the seven social scourges while promising 
to open to us avenues to moral and political progress. With this fore¬ 
knowledge of the deplorable results of human legislation, God would 
then have assigned us a task beyond our strength, though the execu¬ 
tion of it would have been so easy for himself. 

Let us consider further this error which would attribute legislative 
powers to feeble human reason. Why should* God renounce this func¬ 
tion which it would have been so easy for him to exercise by giving 
us a social Code sustained by Attraction ? What reason could he have 
had for refusing us such a Code ? There may be six answers to this 
question: 

1. Either he did not possess the knowledge requisite■ to frame for 
us a social Code, based on Attraction and securing the reign of justice, 


124 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


truth and social unity; in this case he is unjust for creating in us the 
want, if he had not the means of satisfying it, as he has satisfied that 
of the industrial animals to which he has given attraction for their la¬ 
bors, and for the mode of life which he has assigned to them. 

2. Or he had not the desire to give us such a Code; in which case 
he is the persecutor of Humanity, creating us designedly with wants 
which it is impossible for us to satisfy, since none of our social sys¬ 
tems can extirpate the seven scourges. 

3. Or he had the knowledge but not the desire ; in which case he is 
animated by a malignant spirit, since, while able to secure the reign 
of good, he prefers the reign of evil. 

4. Or he had the desire but not the knowledge ; in which case he is 
incapable of governing us, since he perceives and desires the good 
which he has not the wisdom to realize, and which it is still less 
within our power to achieve. 

5. Or he possessed neither the knowledge nor the desire; in which 
case he would be inferior to that evil spirit to whom man attributes 
wickedness, but not stupidity. 

6. Or he had the knowledge and the desire ; in which case the 
Code exists, as well as the means of its revelation ; for of what use 
would be such a Code, if it were not revealed to the beings for whom 
it was intended ? 

Now when a theory, discovered after twenty-five centuries of neg¬ 
lect, transmits to us this revelation, initiates us into the knowledge of 
the Divine Social Code, and of the system of relations which it assigns 
to human Industry, what have men to do but to admit the insufficiency 
of their sciences, and make on a small scale a practical experiment of 
this Code ? 

Men would not have doubted for a moment the existence of a Di¬ 
vine Social Order reserved for them, had they reflected how easy it 
would have been for God to grant such a favor. To deliver us from 
the scourge of false theories, to give us a Code capable of harmonizing 
our social, domestic and industrial relations, what had God to do? 
Nothing, we answer, but to will. 

"With the power which he possesses exclusively of imparting Attrac¬ 
tion, the worst Code framed by Him, and based on Attraction, would 
have been spontaneously accepted by the whole human race; whereas 
the best social Code, devised by man and upheld by constraint, becomes 
a source of discord and suffering by the sole absence of Attraction in 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


125 


securing obedience to its laws: hence all the constitutions framed by 
men would fall at once if they were not sustained by scaffolds and 
prisons. 

We may draw from this the singular conclusion that human happi¬ 
ness can result only from divine laws, even were God less skillful in 
legislation than human lawgivers. How will it be, then, if God is 
their equal in legislative wisdom, which we may presume without 
doing them injustice ? His Code, if it were only as wisely framed as 
theirs, would be immeasurably superior, for the reason that it would 
be sustained by Attraction, which is the only guarantee of happiness 
to those who obey. Thus God would be certain of securing our hap¬ 
piness by an attractive Code, even were it inferior in wisdom to the 
laws of man; and on the other hand, he would be sure to see us 
plunged in misery under any code coming from human reason, from 
the one fact that it would not be attractive, and that the human law¬ 
giver has not the ability to inspire any charm for his tax-gatherers, 
policemen, military levies, and other perfections of our civilized con¬ 
stitutions. 

The human legislator may, sword in hand, make us avow that we 
love his laws, but he cannot really inspire us with a love for them 
unless he admits us to share his privileges, and thus enables us to 
live in ease, secure against poverty and repugnant labor; but these 
privileges are only for a favored few, while Attraction, once connected 
by God with the execution of laws, would render them delightful to all. 

In vain will moralists, like Lambert, say to the people, “ Pay 
your taxes cheerfully, it is the best use to which your money can be 
applied.” The poor man has no taste for such precepts, but on the 
contrary feels a profound dislike to hand his money over to the gov¬ 
ernment agents. He would pay with delight, if some power, invested 
with the Divine prerogative, should impart to him Attraction for tax- 
paying ; he would experience as much pleasure from it as a mother 
experiences in performing the uncleanly but attractive offices required 
by the care of her infant-child. 

These truths, which could not have been overlooked by a wise Cre¬ 
ator, must have determined him to give us a social Code of some kind, 
obedience to which should be secured by Attraction, Regard for these 
truths should have prompted men to examine whether this Divine Code, 
which, rules by Attraction alone, does not exist, but remains undiscov¬ 
ered in consequence of the false methods of science, or the neglect of 


126 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


investigation. The question, then, should have been raised as to the 
proper mode of pursuing the investigation in order to discover this 
code. It will be seen in the following chapter that God would have 
been involved in a labyrinth of absurdities, if he had failed to frame 
such a code. 

Instead of occupying themselves with this investigation, men have 
been engaged in contriving constitutions which have greatly multiplied 
within the last century. How is it that on beholding the inefficacy of 
these unsubstantial guarantees against known evils, such as pauperism, 
fraud, oppression, carnage, etc., no reflecting mind has instituted the 
inquiry whether God had not provided for our w r ants in .respect to so¬ 
cial legislation, and devised for us a social Order adequate to secure 
for us the various ends which human laws can never attain, such as 
wealth, harmony, justice, practical truth, the guarantee of attractive 
labor and the minimum, and above all, social Unity, the essential aim 
of Divine legislation and the dream of human politics. 

If men were making their first social experiments, if they were in 
the early ages of Civilization, they would, perhaps, be excusable for 
founding some hope of social happiness on their own wisdom—on 
human legislation without the intervention of the Divine ; but a long 
experience has fully dissipated this hope; the world has evidently 
nothing to hope from the four speculative sciences — Metaphysics, Moral 
Philosophy, Politics and Political Economy ; twenty-five centuries of 
trials of their systems have proved that they all revolve in the same 
barren circle of error; and far from satisfying the expectations they 
raise, they but develop new social and political evils, such as military 
conscriptions, forced loans and levies, secret societies general espion¬ 
age, national debts, issues of irredeemable paper money, and many 
other devices and expedients, which only aggravate the scourges they 
propose to extirpate. 

What are the results of the most vaunted of political constitutions, 
that of England ? Its capital swarms with beggars, vagabonds and 
thieves, and an annual poor tax of millions does not prevent the coun¬ 
try from being overrun with laborers out of work and without bread, 
and obliged to emigrate by the thousand. 

If such is the condition of the nation which subjects to its commer¬ 
cial tribute every region of the globe, what must be that of the coun¬ 
tries thus despoiled to enrich a people among which so much misery 
still prevails? With what distrust for the laws and institutions of 


PASSIONAL ATTRACTION. 


127 


legislators and conquerors should the contemplation of these results in* 
spire us! How powerfully should the spectacle of such enormities 
urge us to seek for the Divine Code and for an issue from our disas¬ 
trous Civilization! 

And when we reflect that hurtian reason, which might have failed 
in this investigation as in so many others, has not even entered upon 
it or even raised the question, God will be vindicated from all suspi¬ 
cion of oversight or negligence, and human reason, which for twenty- 
five centuries has blindly disregarded the studies which it was its duty 
to undertake, will be condemned. Through this neglect, it has de¬ 
prived mankind of the advantages of the Divine Social Code, and has 
lefDit to suffer under the guidance and control of human legislation, 
which can only produce and extend the seven scourges of our subver¬ 
sive societies. 

Champions of the speculative sciences, unanimous in your condem¬ 
nation of the passions and their natural attractions, what reply have 
you to make to these arguments, drawn from the five essential attri¬ 
butes of God, and especially from the pivotal attribute — Unity of Sys¬ 
tem, which you concede to him by common consent ? Explain how a 
Being who is the director of Universal Movement in Creation, and 
whose fundamental law is Unity of System, could in the case of man 
alone have neglected the direction of the social Movement; could have 
isolated him from the general scheme of unity, from the universal mode 
of guidance and revelation; could have refused to us a happiness which 
it would have been so easy for him to bestow, since he alone can im¬ 
part attraction for obedience to laws which are always hated when 
dictated by man ? In what a labyrinth of absurdities would not God 
become involved by this contradiction with himself, and his plan of 
establishing Unity through Attraction. This will be a subject for 
examination in the next chapter. 


CHAPTER EIGHTH. 


EXAMINATION OF QUESTIONS WHICH ARE WITHOUT THE PALE OF THOUGHT 
AND CONTROVERSY IN CIVILIZATION.—CONTINUED. 

TIIE INNUMERABLE ABSURDITIES 

WITH WHICH GOD WOULD BE CHARGEABLE HAD HE RAILED TO FRAME A AD REVEAL TO 
MAN A SOCIAL CODE, BASED ON ATTRACTION. 

Duties are proportional to means; the more opulent a father the 
more duties he has to fulfill toward his children. The poor man, des¬ 
titute of all means, cannot be said to owe even the necessaries of life 
to his family ; the artisan with a small competence owes those depen¬ 
dent on him a support; the man in easy circumstances owes his chil¬ 
dren instruction in the useful branches of knowledge; the man of 
fortune owes his a finished education ; and so on by degrees up to 
the monarch. The latter is, without doubt, the father who has the 
most obligations to fulfill toward his children, since he has more means 
than any other for providing for their education and securing their 
welfare. 

According to this scale of progression, God, who is our common 
father, owes us still more than a monarch owes to his children; for 
being infinitely more powerful than all monarchs together, it was his 
duty to have provided for us, beginning with this world/more happi¬ 
ness than any earthly monarch can procure for children; and this hap¬ 
piness must commence for us from the time that the divine social Code 
shall be put in execution ; the good which God has reserved for us 
not being attainable under the laws of man. 

We are not so exacting as this in our prayers; we ask of God 
only that daily bread of which the poorest have need ; to ask so little 
is to underrate his magnanimity, to turn his providence into derision. 
God owes us much, because he can give much. When we behold the 
refinement and luxury which exist among the great, >vliat opinion 
must we conceive of a God who, having provided so many pleasures 
for the rich, should, have done nothing for the poor; should have neg¬ 
lected to devise, by means of a just social system, an equitable and 


THE ABSURDITIES. 


129 


progressive distribution of the means of enjoyment, a gradation such 
that if the rich, for example, have an abundance of everything with 
elegance and splendor, the poor would have at least a proportional 
minimum, with neatness and comfort. 

Sophists will reply that God reserves this happiness for us in an¬ 
other world, and for this reason is relieved from the obligation of 
securing it to us in the present. This is to assume that his provi¬ 
dence is partial; that it does not include the universality of Move¬ 
ment 5 that instead of being compound, it is simple, limiting to one 
life the happiness which should be extended to both. But as these 
sophists give us no details as to the condition and functions of our 
souls in the future life, of which I shall treat elsewhere, they leave 
room for us to suspect., on the principle of unity and analogy, that 
they will be unhappy as in this. Nevertheless, the power of our com¬ 
mon Father being infinite in this world.as in the other, he OAves tons 
an infinite happiness in the present world as well as in the future. 

The theory of Passional Attraction Avill demonstrate that he has 
fulfilled this two-fold duty, and that in addition to the good he has 
prepared for us under the reign of social Harmony, to which the globe 
is soon to pass, he guarantees to us happiness in the other lil’e, of 
which we have as yet no positive knowledge. 

The scientific demonstration of the reality of the future life can be 
arrived at only by a knowledge of the integral theory of Movement, 
or the unitary theory of its five branches, of which our sciences, after 
three thousand years of research, have been able to explain only the 
least important — the material—which has been knoAvn since Newtoirs 
discoveries. 

Omitting for the present these transcendental problems, let us re¬ 
strict ourselves to the inquiry as to what should be expected of the 
Deity relative to our terrestrial destiny, Avhich he must have regulated 
by a social Code, anterior to the creation of man. Let us examine to 
what extent his wisdom would be compromised, if he had not provided 
such a code. Let us set up a fictitious accusation against his provi¬ 
dence, assuming that he has devised no system of laAvs for our indus¬ 
trial and social relations, revealed by the synthesis of Attraction, and 
in harmony with mathematics. 

An amusing feature of the Table which follows is, that all the 
charges here brought forward, to the number of sixteen, — some of 
which have been mentioned in preceding chapters,—full back upon 
6 * 


130 


TIIE ABSURDITIES. 


human reason, if it can be proved that God has not neglected to frame 
fyr man a unitary social Code, but that human reason has neglected 
to seek for it. 

table of charges to be preferred against the deity, on the 

HYPOTHESIS THAT THERE EXISTS NO DIVINE SOCIAL CODE. 

A The Creator is deficient in foresight, limited in his providence 
and in his wisdom , if. after the experience he must have acquired dur¬ 
ing a past eternity in creating and governing worlds, he has not fore¬ 
seen the want of their inhabitants of a unitary social Code for the 
regulation of their industrial and domestic relations and the play of 
the passions — a code which human reason is incapable of framing.* 

y He is liable to the charge of having considered human reason 
superior to his own , since he has left to it the care of legislating on 
the pivotal branch of Movement—that of the organization of human 
societies. 

B He detracts from his oxen dignity and punishes maxi , because 
being able to insure our happiness by means of an attractive social 
Code of some kind, which, whether good or bad in theory, is always 
good in practice, as it is based on Attraction, he has been pleased by 
refusing us such a code, to exhibit his malevolence toward us, and 
involve us in perpetual suffering. 

g; He gives rise , by providing no social Code, to the spirit of irre- 
ligion and to doubt in his providence. He betrays a want of interest 
in the welfare of the human race by not establishing a social Code for 


* Supreme Wisdom must liave precalculated the action of those motor-forces, 
called Passions, which it has implanted in man, and regulated, according to some plan, 
their mode of action and development. It must, before creating the Passions, have 
determined upon a system of Society which would secure their useful employment, 
and in which they could act and co-operate harmoniously. It is this system whicli 
human reason should have sought to discover by a careful observation and study of 
the Passions, their tendencies, requirements, and modes of action and development, — or 
what Fourier calls, “The analytic and synthetic calculation of Passional Attraction.” 
Moralists, philosophers and legislators have never thought of this ; they have simply 
condemned the Passions as depraved and vicious, — seeing them in their subversive 
development?—and sought by laws and institutions of their own to regulate their 
action according to their views. Fourier shows the radical error of this policy, and 
proposes to seek for the original or Divine plan according to which they were cre¬ 
ated, and their play and action regulated. This plan is what he calls the divine 
social Code. — Editor. 




THE ABSURDITIES. 


131 


the regulation of its social relations, and thus justifies scepticism and 
impiety. 

C He exhibits a degree of intelligence inferior to that of the com¬ 
monest of mortals by not framing such a code / for the most ignorant 
of men in collecting materials for building—stone, wood-work, etc.— 
does not fail to prepare some plan for their employment. Now if God, 
in creating the passions, the arts and sciences, industry and the other 
materials of the social edifice, has. neglected to fix upon a plan for 
their employment, he would exhibit a want of foresight which would 
expose to derision the least skillful of our mechanics. 

Q He woidd seem at times to be void of his attribute of wis¬ 
dom ; foreknowing howto regulate harmoniously the planetary worlds 
and their systems, if he were incapable of establishing harmony in the 
relations of the beings who inhabit them, he would resemble an archi¬ 
tect who, after having constructed a vast palace, should be at a loss 
how to build a cottage, and from that fact might be suspected of a 
temporary loss of his faculties. 

D He becomes responsible for the existence of social anarchy and 
discord on earth, by depriving us of a Code, the necessity of which 
he could not have overlooked ; for no sovereign or minister in found¬ 
ing a colony, w r ere it only of a hundred families, forgets to provide 
for it, at the outset, some system of organization and government; God 
should have done as much for our globe and all others, — they being- 
colonies of which he is the founder. 

(j He is chargeable with injustice to our t globe alone or to all globes ; 
for if other worlds have no need of a social Code, and can attain to 
harmony by the light of human reason alone, or if they have discov¬ 
ered the Divine Code by means of an instinct refused to ours, God 
exercises a providence toward them which he does not toward us. 
Why does he not either relieve us from the necessity of such a code, 
or initiate us into the means of discovery which has been granted to 
other globes ? 

E He violates the laws of mechanics and the first of his primary 
attribides—Economy of Means — in not employing Attraction to exercise 
the functions of motor and guide for man as it does for the planetary 
and animal worlds; in making Attraction a deceptive guide for men 
alone, he fails of the only means of attaining the seven guarantees we 
have already enumerated, such as permanent revelation, voluntary 
execution, etc. 


132 


THE ABSURDITIES. 


g If he has conferred on Attraction this function of social motor 
and guide, he has, then, given us in the faculty of Reason but a delu = 
sive substitute for it; for up to the present time the theory of Pas¬ 
sional Attraction has been impenetrable to our sciences, although in its 
quality of social guide it was the thing most urgent for us to understand. 
God would then have given us only incomplete or partial powers of 
reason, capable of discovering the comparatively useless theory of mate¬ 
rial or siderial attraction, but not the priceless theory of Passional 
Attraction and social harmony. 

P lie is the enemy of man in both a positive and a negative sense; 
in the positive sense, by refusing us an attractive passional Code, which 
wo,rid have secured our happiness and would have cost the Distributor 
of Attraction nothing but to will it; in the negative sense, because 
being able to distribute Attractions and Repulsions at pleasure, he has 
not given us Attractions adapted to the results — such as poverty, fraud, 
oppression, carnage, etc. — which the laws of men produce, laws which 
would become for us a guarantee of happiness, if God had given us an 
attraction for their odious results, as he should have done, if our pre¬ 
sent societies were our irrevocable destiny. 

^ He desires a permanent war between man and himself and between 
man and his passions, if he has condemned us to resist the influence 
of the attractions, of which he is the distributor; or if, foreseeing that 
they would lead us to evil, he has given us to resist them no other 
means than reason, which is powerless even among those who call 
themselves its oracles, like the philosophers, for example, who are often 
the least capable of resisting their passions. 

G He directly encourages atheism, for he must have foreseen that 
after fruitless social experiments, continued for thousands of years, Hu¬ 
manity, subjected to the legislation of reason, would find all the evils 
it had suffered, aggravated, and would vainly invoke the intervention 
of Divine Wisdom in social affairs, in which its own had always failed; 
that these repeated disappointments would destroy all hope in God, 
and would give birth to theories of materialism, atheism, of the supre¬ 
macy of evil, and to other aberrations to which the spectacle of the 
miseries engendered in the civilized, barbaric and savage societies gives 
rise, and which will prevail so long as men have no faith in a divine 
social Order and in the advent to a better social state. 

f) His government of the globe is such as ice should attribute to the 
fictitious being which we call Satan ; for we may defy the evil spirit, 


TILE ABSURDITIES. 133 

if the globe were given it to govern, to invent for the torment and 
degradation of the, human race, 

More ferocity and brutality than we see in the Savage state ; 

More persecution and oppression than we see in the Barbaric state ; 

More perfidy than we see in the Civilized and Patriarchal states; 

In fine, more poverty and debasement than the human race expe¬ 
riences in these four societies. 

Direct Pivot. As regards the passional and social world: 

God is in internal conflict with himself and with his own laws , if, 
loving justice, truth, unity, he has destined us to the civilized, barbaric 
and savage societies, in which the passions produce only the permanent 
triumph of injustice, falseness and duplicity of action — a state of col¬ 
lective and individual warfare of man with himself. 

Collective warfare, by the open or secret opposition of the great ma¬ 
jority to the laws and institutions of our false societies which would 
fall at once if not upheld by violence and constraint. 

Individual warfare, by the strife and conflict between Attraction and 
Reason in each individual. 

And in addition, social warfare, by the antipathies of races which 
maintain upon the earth four incompatible societies — the Savage, Pa¬ 
triarchal, Barbaric and Civilized — which are hostile to each other; and 
by the refusal of nations composing the same society, like the Civilized, 
to form any fusion or union. 

Inverse Pivot. As regards the material world: 

God is involved in external conflict with himself, that is, with the 
universe, which is composed of three principles: 

1. Spirit, or God, the active and moving principle; 

2. Matter, the passive principle which is acted upon ; 

3. Mathematics, the neutral and regulating principle. 

He is in conflict with two of these principles, if he has irrevocably 
destined the second — matter — to the derangements of climate, the at¬ 
mospheric excesses, the polar congelations, and other physical disor¬ 
ders which reign on the earth. If the present chaos of the globe is 
the ultimate design of God, he then rules matter in contradiction with 
the laws of the third principle—mathematics — from which, having 
derived the laws of harmony for the planets, he should have employed 
them to establish harmony in the elements and the material system of 
the globe. 


THE ABSURDITIES. 


134 


This series of charges contravene in every sense the attributes of 
God which have been already enumerated. 

Radical Attnbute. Integral direction of Movement in all its branches 
by Attraction, 
f Economy -of Means, 

Primary 3 Distributive Justice, 

Attributes. ) ’ 

( Universality of Providence. 

Pivotal Attribute. Unity of System. 

I have set forth the charges to winch God would be liable, had he 
failed to frame for man a social Code for the regulation of the passions, 
based on mathematics, and interpreted by the synthesis of Attraction. 
I have reduced the charges to sixteen ; another might double and 
triple the number, but those enumerated are sufficient to sustain the 
proposition laid down in this chapter, namely : 

That if a series of formal charges were preferred against the Deity, 
they would all fall back upon human reason , if it can be proved that 
God has not neglected to devise for our relations a unitary Code ; but 
that it is misdirected reason—the speculative sciences—which have made 
no researches whatever for this Code. 

Let us reason here as if its discovery were not made: the vindica¬ 
tion of the Deity would still be very easy; it is based on a decisive 
fact, on the neglect of investigation, of which human reason has ren¬ 
dered itself culpable. God consents willingly that we prefer all these 
and a hundred other accusations against him for not framing and 
revealing a social Code; but if he has done this before creating the 
human race, and if he has given man in Passional Attraction a medium 
of revelation, upon wdiom do the various charges fall back, if not upon 
the authors of the speculative sciences which have lost five and twenty 
centuries in political controversy without deigning to seek for the di¬ 
vine social Code by the analytic and synthetic calculation of Passional 
Attraction — a calculation which should have been entered upon in the 
earliest ages of scientific investigation, were it only from pure curios¬ 
ity, and to conform to the rule of integral exploration. 

Thus to accuse the Deity, which seems at first view an act of im¬ 
piety, becomes in fact the most judicious step that could have been 
taken, because it raises the issue between the false light of reason or 
philosophy, and the wisdom of God. 

Timid consciences may fear that such an act would be an insult to 
the Creator by comparing his wisdom to that of man. God is indifferent 


THE ABSURDITIES. 


135 


*o matters so trifling; he can condescend, without lowering his dignity, 
to expose our ignorance and folly, which will always he made mani¬ 
fest, when the apparent errors of God are put in the scale with the 
real errors of human reason. 

While ostensibly accusing God in this discussion, we really accuse 
the authors of the speculative sciences, for the greater the num¬ 
ber of charges which can be preferred against him, the more incredible 
it will appear that he could have become involved in such a labyrinth 
of follies and absurdities by neglecting to frame and reveal a unitary 
social Code. 

An apparent accusation thus preferred against the Deity, far lrom 
being an act of audacity and irreligion, would have been in reality an 
act of the highest wisdom, since it would have sufficed to dissipate 
those prejudices which destroy in us faith and hope in the universality 
of Providence. The discussion would have led to the conclusion that 
there must exist a divine social Code, and the recognition of the fact 
of its existence would have soon been followed by itg discovery. 

Can it be presumed that the Creator would take offense at such an 
accusation ? The administrator who has fulfilled his duties faithfully 
and honestly has no fear of having his accounts examined; ho is the 
first to invite an investigation, in order to establish his probity. 

The Deity invites a scrutiny of his providence; he has too wisely 
organized the passional and material universe to fear that his methods 
and arrangements should be criticized — that the causes and ends of 
apparent evil should be inquired into; we can adopt no course more 
acceptable to him than to abandon our habit of servile and supersti¬ 
tious adoration, and scrutinize severely his plans as to the regulation 
of Movement, and especially of the Passions, provided, however, that 
we proceed in the same way with the adversary of Divine Wisdom, 
namely, perverted reason, which, arrogating to itself the direction of 
the social Movement, has excluded God from all participation in it. 

We cannot, then, accuse - God without, at the same time, accusing 
human reason;, this is the only means of exhibiting the wisdom of 
God, which, as regards the destiny of our globe, has been veiled from 
the eyes of Humanity; it cannot be properly vindicated except by 
entering upon a regular examination of the duties and obligations of 
the Deity to man, and the manner in which they have been fulfilled, 
and making at the same time a similar examination in respect to the 
duties of human reason. 


136 


THE ABSURDITIES. 


The issue between Divine and human reason may be reduced to 
the two following points : 

The duty of the former was to frame for man an attractive social 
Code, and to interpret it to him by a permanent revelatiou. 

The duty of the latter was to seek for this Code by an analytical 
and synthetical study of Passional Attraction, and to test it when 
discovered by a practical trial. 

Upon the least examination as to which of the two has failed to 
fulfill its task, human reason will at once be suspected and be sum¬ 
moned to proceed to the research of the Divine Code — to the method¬ 
ical study of Passional Attraction. 

Such is the result to which our modern theories of atheism would 
have led, had not their authors been weak both in intellect and 
character. 

This revolt against the idea of a God, which has found so many 
partisans in modern times, was, perhaps, an effect of despair on the 
part of an age which had become weary of its errors, and of the 
apparent disorders of Nature. Atheism, odious as it is, would have 
become a means of discovery, if the philosophers had been less timid 
in respect to forms. If they believed themselves justified in their denial 
of a God, they would not have been afraid to draw up their charges 
against his providence regularly, and to try a serious issue between 
human and Divine Reason, commencing with a detailed list of griev¬ 
ances, and especially a statement of what would be expected of each. 

And as any discussion of this subject, by bringing Philosophy to 
the bar, would have caused suspicion to fall upon it as well as upon 
the Deity, and determined how far the obligations of each had been 
discharged, it is beyond doubt that philosophy would have been at 
once condemned, from the simple fact of its having violated the pre¬ 
cept of integral exploration, and neglected all regular study of the 
social designs of God. 

Thus extremes meet ; the discovery of this mystery of our social 
Destiny, of the existence of a divine social Code, which would have 
resulted from the fullness of faith and hope in God, would also have 
resulted from a regular accusation of the Deity. Such an act, impious 
in appearance, would have led by an inverse process to the same end 
to which we should have been led by a direct process, through an in¬ 
telligent faith and hope in Divine Wisdom, as well as by researches 
for the Divine Code. 


THE ABSURDITIES. 


137 


Our philosophers, then, in atheism as in everything else, have failed 
through simplism and littleness; simple atheism is a hideous doctrine; 
compound atheism or the suspicion of both divine and human reason 
would have been a very happy conception, and in nowise unreason¬ 
able, for it is conditional , and does not call in question the existence 
of a divine Providence till after an examination of human philosophy, 
its . antagonist, till after a decision of what each of them has done 
towards the accomplishment of its Duties. In this sense, compound 
atheism leads to the same end as intelligent faith, for both lead to a 
regular study of Attraction. 

Our globe,, up to the present time, has known only simple or blind 
faith, attributing the movement of the universe to the pure caprice of 
the Deity without the intervention of the mathematical or regulating 
principle. 

In this study, as in all others, the civilized mind has lost itself 
through simplism ; and with all its subtle theories in regard to the gen¬ 
eration of ideas, it has never been able in its studies relative to God, 
to man and to the universe, to rise to the conception of any compound 
idea, to any hypothesis of unity of system in the universe. I shall 
analyze this tendency to one-sided or simplistic views at a future time. 

Paifial measures, instead of remedying, tend only to aggravate evils: 
we may judge of this by the course of our modern atheists, whose 
half-way denials of the existence of God have delayed the discovery 
of the Laws of Attraction, whereas a compound and methodical atheism 
would have led directly to the accusation of Civilized reason, and this 
was the end which it was desirable to attain. A cause does not admit 
of a just decision, when the accusing party is the criminal; he will 
take good care to say nothing to criminate himself; and such has 
been the course pursued by our simple atheists, who have attempted 
merely to disprove the existence of God from the apparent disorders 
of this world. These disorders — constituting the reign of evil — exist 
during the early or transitional phase of the social Movement, or of 
the social career of the human race on the planet. This period of so¬ 
cial subversion is of short duration when compared with the entire 
career, as the period of infancy, with its teething and other troubles, 
is of short duration in comparison with the entire life of man. 

If we suppose the social career of Humanity on the globe to be, 
for example, eighty thousaud years, the different phases would be dis¬ 
tributed somewhat as follows: 


# 


< 


138 


THE ABSURDITIES. 


SOCIAL CAREER OF THE HUMAN RACE. 


Y KARS 


1st Phase. C Period of Ascending Social Subversion , 5,000 

2d Phase, ( Period of Ascending Social Harmony, 30,000 

Pivot. Apogee of Social and Material Development, 9,000 


3d Phase, C Period of Descending Social Harmony, 27,000 

4 th Phase, \ Period of Descending Social Subversion , 4,000* 


Doubtless Providence appears at fault during the first phase or as¬ 
cending subversion — the present state of our planet, which is still very 
young. The Deity will not be liable to such a suspicion in the fourth 
phase or the declining age, when there will be a return to a subver¬ 
sive state through the effect of the refrigeration and poverty of the 
planet; it will be known then that the two extreme transitions of all 
careers are painful, and that God, according to this general rule of 
Movement, cannot save any globe from the sufferings of the two ex¬ 
treme ages. As to those of the first age, they need not occasion much 
solicitude, since it is easy to escape from them as soon as the means 
or lever necessary to organize Association, namely, the. arts of Agri¬ 
culture and Manufactures, are discovered; after the development of 
these arts (which were already sufficiently advanced in the»age of 
Pericles), it only remains for human reason to discover how to employ 
this lever, which, however, can only become a source of happiness on 
condition of organizing Association and social Unity. 

Our men of science, instead of studying this question, have confiued 
themselves to censures of divine Providence, justifying their charges by 
the present disorder of the globe, without taking into account the 


* It is of but little consequence, in studying the question of evil, whether the 
social career of the human race is eighty or eight hundred thousand years; the law 
is the same. The important fact to be understood is that Humanity, considered as 
a collective whole, goes like all other finite beings, through a career ; that this 
career has a beginning, a middle and an end ; that the two extremes or transitional 
phases —the beginning and the end —are incomplete and imperfect, being out of 
unity with the central, which is the organic and normal part of the career, and that 
it is in these transitional phases that the reign of evil takes place. Had men of sci¬ 
ence comprehended this truth, they would have furnished a scientific solution of the 
problem of evil, and the world would have been taught to seek for the means of 
realizing the collective happiness of the race on this earth by the discovery and 
organization of social Harmony, instead of believing in the eternity of evil here be¬ 
low, and in the possibility only of individual salvation in another world through 
prayers and supplications. — Editor. 



« 


THE ABSURDITIES. 139 

means of Harmony which God may have reserved for us, and which 
reason should have endeavored to discover. 

Why does human reason claim for itself the privilege of accusing 
Providence, while denying the right of any authority to accuse it in 
turn? To escape the dilemma, it resorts to a subterfuge which up to 
the present time has fully succeeded; it feigns extreme humility, say¬ 
ing “ let us reverence the profound wisdom of God ; let us not seek by 
an act of audacious sacrilege to penetrate sacred mysteries, and raise 
the veil that conceals them; is a pigmy like man made to fathom the 
depths of Divine Wisdom?’’ / 

Let us not be deceived by such subterfuges; let us come at once 
to the point. 

There is delinquency somewhere, which must be traced to its source; 
and since suspicion must rest either upon divine Providence or human 
reason, no evasion should be allowed. . Let us not fear that the inquest 
will be offensive to the Creator; far from it; he desires it for his 
own glory as well as for our happiness. He has been for five and 
twenty centuries the object of philosophic suspicions, which have been 
disguised under a mask of reverence; but notwithstanding all this 
pretended veneration for the Deity, the principle is none the less main¬ 
tained that his providence is limited and insufficient , since he has failed 
to provide for us a social Code; that he is the enemy of distributive 
justice , of economy of means , and of unity of system , since the inten¬ 
tion is attributed to him of wishing to perpetuate the present civilized 
Order, the social chaos that now reigns on the globe. 

Such are the delinquencies which we impute, in fact , to the Su¬ 
preme Being, while offering to him an incense, polluted by prejudices, 
defamatory of his wisdom and goodness. God does not accept this 
equivocal homage; his wisdom can be made manifest only by an ex¬ 
posure of the real delinquent; we must know definitely whether God 
is deficient in providence, and has neglected to frame for us a social 
Code, or whether human reason has neglected to seek for it. 

From the moment the discussion assumes this definite form, and 
leaves no opportunity for subterfuge, we shall see delinquent philoso¬ 
phy confounded and shrinking from an investigation; we shall see it 
confessing the universality of Providence, and the necessary existence 
of a divine social Code. 

Whoever will reflect upon the sixteen charges which I have just 
set forth in the form of a hypothetical accusation of divine Providence, 


140 


THE ABSURDITIES. 


and upon the seven guarantees which would have been secured in 
employing Attraction, will be convinced that if this hypothetical accu¬ 
sation had been developed and regularly entered upon, it would from the 
outset have awakened suspicions against speculative philosophy, which 
attributes to God the absurdity of having failed to frame and reveal a 
social Code for man. The investigation of these charges against Prov¬ 
idence would of itself have led to a search for the Divine Code, which, 
had a regular exploration been prosecuted, would have soon been 
discovered. 


CHAPTER NINTH. 


EXAMINATION OF QUESTIONS WHICH ARE WITHOUT THE PALE OF THOUGHT 
AND CONTROVERSY IN CIVILIZATION — CONTINUED. 

DETAILED EXAMINATION OF THE SEVEN GUARANTEES 
INHERENT IN ATTRACTION. 

Let us multiply our proofs to establish the great truth before which 
all our philosophical theories in regard to man and his destiny fall, 
namely, that there must exist a unitary social code, framed by 
God and revealed by Attraction, and that the sciences not having 
made, up to the present time, any study of Passional Attraction, there 
is in this omission, if not bad faith, at least the most shameful negli¬ 
gence and incapacity, especially since the success of Newton in the 
investigation of Material Attraction was an incentive to follow up the 
study, and to raise it from the simple to the compound, by adding the 
calculations of Passional, to those of Material Attraction. 

The three chapters of this part of the work relate only to this the¬ 
sis, developed and presented in various lights; there is no subject 
upon which constant repetition is more necessary. In these three chap¬ 
ters we wage a war with the whole body of the speculative sciences ; if 
the above thesis is clearly demonstrated, these sciences fall to the 
ground; Attraction is proclaimed the interpreter of God, and the an¬ 
cient and modern philosophies are swept into oblivion. 

Let us not spare details, then, in order that we may carry convic¬ 
tion to every mind. If some readers are sufficiently prepared, others 
doubt and hesitate, not from any bad intention, but from infatuation 
for reigning philosophic ideas, for our boasted Civilization, and from 
their belief in the capacity of human reason to make laws. Led astray 
by these narrow views, which are fostered by the four false sciences, 
they would amalgamate them with the doctrine of Attraction, which is 
opposed to all arbitrary dogmas* and all theories confuted by experience. 

Our age, engrossed by its philosophical and political chimeras, re¬ 
quires repeated rebukes for its blind disregard of truth and nature. 


142 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


Its prejudices against Attraction are like the old walls of Roman 
cement, which are proof against the sledge and hammer of the mason; 
such is the tenacity of our prejudices against the guide which God has 
given us—against Attraction. We must, then, utterly demolish and 
clear away these old philosophic structures, before laying the founda¬ 
tions of the new system. 

The more we examine the perfect accordance of Attraction with 
the attributes of God and the wants and aspirations of man, the more 
we shall be convinced that our learned bodies in neglecting all study 
of Attraction are chargeable, if not with bad faith, at least with shame¬ 
ful incapacity. 

In how many researches, most of them useless, do we see men 
engage from curiosity or cupidity ! What obstinate studies of insoluble 
problems, like those of the alchemists! How many fruitless excava¬ 
tions in regions supposed to contain mines! How many voyages to 
discover some miserable desert island, or a few inscriptions of no value ! 
What impotent efforts to explore the interior of Africa for its mines 
of gold, and for the sources of the Niger and the Nile ! What expen¬ 
ditures for the discovery of a north-west passage, which in the present 
state of the Arctic climate would be of no practical value! 

No matter how great the obstacles, nothing can deter scientific curi¬ 
osity from researches which end only in deception and disappointment; 
whereas the most magnificent of scientific prizes, the calculation of Attrac¬ 
tion and of human destiny, has remained neglected for three thousand 
years without having excited the least curiosity. 

Let us insist upon the indications which should have stimulated 
genius to this study, and resume the examination of the seven guaran¬ 
tees which Attraction offers to God and to man; I have presented 
them only in a Table. I will now proceed to analyze them in detail. 

1 . Means of a permanent social revelation , in that Attraction stim¬ 
ulates us constantly by impulses as invariable in all time and in all 
places as the teachings of reason are variable and deceptive. 

The experience of all ages having proved that Attraction is immu¬ 
table, that it must be ten thousand, twenty thousand years hence as 
unchangeable as it has been since the creation of the world, that it 
will tend always to riches and not to poverty, to groups and not to 
incoherence, it becomes evident from this immutable character of At¬ 
traction, that any science relating to its developments and properties 
would be a positive science, that any social system resulting from it 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


143 


would be one dictated by God, and interpreted by a permanent revel¬ 
ation from him, since Attraction is never either silent or uncertain. 
What an inducement, then, to seek for its theory, which once discov¬ 
ered will be sure to become an invariable guide in social politics, and 
to supplant all our present irreconcilable systems. 

If Attraction is not destined to furnish us this guide, what function, 
what employment has God assigned to it ? It has served, up to the 
present time, only to lead us astray, to plunge us into excesses and 
into social conflicts. It would seem to be an enemy which God has 
placed in our path, a traitor which, under the most alluring guise, 
wins our confidence in order to mislead and ruin us. Is it God, then, 
who would betray us ? for it is he who has placed within us this 
enemy. 

The philosophers and moralists think that they explain the problem 
by saying that God has given us reason that we may resist our Attrac¬ 
tions. This is precisely what he has not done; Reason, which they 
would oppose to Attraction, is powerless even with those who are re¬ 
puted to be its especial ministers ; it is always impotent when the 
passions and inclinations are to be repressed. Children are restrained 
only by fear; young men by want of money 5 the masses by poverty 
and coercion; the aged by parsimonious calculations which take the 
place of the impetuous passions of youth ; but no one is restrained by 
reason, which, unsupported by coercion, would thwart the natural 
inclinations. 

Reason, then, is without influence, and the more we observe man 
the more we shall see that he is in reality controlled by Attraction; 
that he listens to reason only so far as it teaches him to satisfy its 
dictates, and to refine his enjoyments. 

It is evident, therefore, that God in subjecting us to this guide and 
motor called Attraction, must have reserved to it some function, some 
nse adapted to the ends of unity and justice which are attributes of 
the Creator. In order to make Attraction serve a useful purpose he 
must have given us a social Code, which would admit of its free action 
and development. This opinion is the only one which can be recon¬ 
ciled with the attributes already pointed out. 

With this mass of indications to excite us to study attraction, and 
to determine the social mechanism to which it tends, how great is the 
blindness and folly of Civilized nations in so long deferring the study, 
and how great would be the perversity of those who should seek to 


144 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


prevent the trial of Association, the laws of which are at last discov¬ 
ered through the calculation of that Attraction which has in all ages 
been neglected and condemned. 

2. Economy of means, by the employment of an agent combining 
in itself the properties of interpreter and motor; an agent capable of 
revealing and impelling at the same time. 

What idea must men form of Divine Economy, about which they are 
constantly reasoning so absurdly ? Can it be believed that when a 
means exists of performing a double function by a single agent, God 
would prefer to this economy the coercive method which would cause 
a double waste ? 

This is what would take place if God were to choose Reason with¬ 
out Attraction as his interpeter; he would be obliged, according to 
the Civilized method, to employ. 

Unproductive interpreters, and 
Rebellious subjects. 

We have in the present Order many self-styled expounders of wis¬ 
dom and reason, supported by a great army of officials, civil and mili¬ 
tary, without which no people would either listen to their lessons of 
wisdom, or consent to pay taxes. This whole body of officials is now 
unproductive; in Association it would be largely productive; for in 
that Order, labor being attractive will constitute the delight of the rich 
and great as well as of the people; it will secure a state of opulence 
and general peace, will render coercive armies and other means of re¬ 
pression unnecessary, preserve the masses from the disgust of repug¬ 
nant toil, and combine pleasures with the creation of wealth. 

Unless the incentive of Attraction be applied to Industry, the con¬ 
trary effect takes place ; the poor refuse to labor, or at least do so 
sluggishly and with disgust, while the rich and great are obliged to 
league together and enrol in armies the famished rabble to force the 
masses to engage in their repulsive labors; hence come those legions 
of non-producers, who constitute, incredible as it may appear, two- 
thirds of the civilized population. 

Our theories which assign to God the title of supreme Economist are 
absurd and irreverent, when they assume that he could have based 
his calculations on a system of coercion, which gives rise to such enor¬ 
mous waste. It would have been perfectly easy for him to have 
adopted the attractive system, from which would have resulted both 
economy and wealth; he employs this system, as is visibly evident, in 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 145 

the direction of the heavenly bodies, and of various industrial animals; 
can it be presumed that he would exclude man from it ? 

But how can our philosophic sciences be expected to give us any 
correct ideas of the system of economy employed by God, when in the 
management of the public economy of states, they have ended in so 
rapidly and monstrously increasing taxes, that it will soon be necessary 
to expend one-half of the product of the Industry of nations to regu¬ 
late their industrial interests. 

Such are the achievements of sciences which promise to simplify 
the administrative mechanism of Governments! Now if we admit that 
God has the power to establish the reign of good on earth, promised 
by our philosophic guides ; if he wishes to simplify social arrangements 
instead of complicating them to the highest degree as they do, does he 
not possess the means in Attraction, of which he is the sole distribu¬ 
tor ,f Must we not presume that he has decided upon making use of 
Attraction, and ought we not to enter upon its study, in order to dis¬ 
cover the social applications to which he has destined it ? 

"8. Sympathetic concert between the creature and the Creator , or re¬ 
conciliation of the free-will of man, obeying from pleasure, with the 
authority of God who ordains pleasure. 

From Attraction alone can this two-fold marvel proceed; where 
can we find an agent which guarantees so perfectly the respective lib¬ 
erties of master and subject, and which causes love to spring from 
obedience, from which in the present Order there arises only hatred 
between subject and master? In this Order, it is necessary to inculcate 
upon the civilized mind the fear of God so as to excite in it a fear 
of the constituted authorities, and secure passive obedience. If instead 
of such a policy, which is based only on fear and hatred, one could be 
discovered through which the people would be led to adhere with 
delight to Industry and to the laws and institutions of society, would 
not the philosophers admire an agent which should produce results so 
impossible for them to effect by their theories ? 

I have never read any of the controversies relative to free-will; I 
should like to know how the philosophers pretend to prove that man 
is free when he cannot obey the impulses which God has implanted in 
him, when he has not the power accorded to inferior creatures of obey¬ 
ing his attractions. The problem to be solved in respect to free-will 
is to establish concert between rulers and the ruled; this concert 
cannot exist except under a code which is attractive to those who are 
1 


146 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


governed by it. When the people come to have a sincere affection for 
the social system under which they live, and are happy in it, they will 
be inspired as a consequence with a sincere love of God—the author 
of so perfect an Order—and there will be entire concord and unity in 
the social world, but effected by the spontaneous play of the attrac¬ 
tions without any coercion. Then will the exercise of free-will be 
fully guaranteed. 

Does this freedom of the will exist at present among the industrial 
nations ? No; since free or savage races reject Industry, and among 
agricultural and manufacturing nations, we see insurrection breaking 
out whenever constraint and coercion are removed. 

Our industrial societies, then, are in a state of opposition to God, 
and of oppression for man; they are in opposition td God, who would 
govern us by Attraction, but which is, now repressed, and they are 
oppressive for man, who has the desire, but not the liberty to follow 
Attraction. We cannot then conciliate 
The free intervention of God, 

And the free-will of man, 

except under a social Code, adapted to the collective and individual 
attractions of Humanity. I have demonstrated that this Code exisls ; 
but how can it be discovered, so long as men make no researches 
for it ? 

4. Combination of the useful with the agreeable , or of profit with 
pleasure, by the application of Attraction to productive labors, to 
which it should passionately attract us as to all functions assigned us 
by God. 

We ought, according to the moralists, to prefer the useful to the 
agreeable. But this is contrary to our destiny, which is compound and 
not simple, and which requires the useful and the agreeable to be 
united; our social and industrial relations should be so arranged that 
we should attain the useful while thinking only of the agreeable; with¬ 
out this, our happiness would be inferior to that of the animals. 

Is it to be supposed that the ant thinks of the useful while gather¬ 
ing its winter supplies into its little storehouse ? No; it is instinct 
alone which guides it; it occupies itself only with the agreeable, 
without thinking of the morrow, without troubling itself with specula¬ 
tes as to the approach and duration of winter. God must have 
devised for us a similar system, under which we may live without 
preoccupation for the future. 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


147 


<£ Preposterous idea ! ” it will be said. Preposterous indeed would it 
be in Civilization, and this proves the need of a different social Order 
in which this freedom from care for the future would be possible, 
and in which the requirements both of the present and future would 
be fulfilled simultaneously. If we deprive ourselves to-day in order to 
enjoy to-morrow, our happiness is not integral and continuous. The 
prudence which sacrifices the present to the future, is a divergent wis¬ 
dom, a war between Attraction and Reason. Wisdom in the Combined 
Order becomes convergent; it will enable man to enjoy himself to-day 
without care for the morrow, unless this care has for him some charm. 
Besides, this anxiety would be useless in the Combined Order, since 
while imagining himself engaged in the pursuit of present pleasures, he 
will, like the ant and the bee, have labored for the future. 

This is promising too much, it will be said; men do not desire 
such wonders. Thus reply our pretended sages; but nothing is more 
erroneous than their moderation. They do not consider that our des¬ 
tiny being compound, we fall, if we do not obtain a two-fold degree of 
happiness, into a two-fold degree of suffering and misfortune. This is 
an alternative which must be constantly borne in mind. Good and Evil 
are always dualized effects in human destiny; we must attain to com¬ 
pound good, or we sink into compound evil; the animal is subject to 
simple good and evil only. 

How will the Combined Order attend to the cares of the future, 
especially to the laying up of reserved supplies in seasons of abund¬ 
ance, if every one adopts as a rule to occupy himself only with the 
present ? Attraction will provide for this ; many characters will find in 
cares for the future a present pleasure ; it will be these who, in each 
Series, will occupy themselves from Attraction with laying up supplies 
for the future. For example, in an Association, the regency, composed 
of old and experienced persons, will find a present pleasnre in these 
acts of precaution ; and when in a year of superabundance they decide 
1 o lay aside supplies for three years; when they supervise in turn the 
work of storing the grain, and securing it against all damage ; when, 
finally, they can say to the Association, “our granaries are supplied 
for three years and arranged in good order,” is their pleasure post¬ 
poned to the future, like the consumption of the stores amassed ? Cer¬ 
tainly not; for an old man experiences present enjoyment when he 
makes for persons whom he loves arrangements which guarantee to 
them a happy future. The old will find besides a present charm in 


148 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


presiding over the labors of the young men who are engaged with 
them in storing the grain, — a pleasure which cannot exist for old men in 
Civilization, between whom and the young there are so many causes 
of antipathy. The incompatibility of extreme ages being one of the 
most common duplicities of the civilized Order, as is the conflict 
between the useful and the agreeable. 

There can be no unity of action in this respect except in a state 
of things, capable of putting an end to the conflict between Attraction 
and Reason, of attaining the useful by the agreeable, and of securing 
the good to come in the pursuit of present pleasure; this brilliant 
but difficult problem will be fully solved in an Order based on the 
Passional Series, and on a system of attractive Industry resulting 
therefrom. 

The Serial Order once understood, what value can we attach to 
our present theories, which, placing Attraction and Reason in conflict 
and wishing to sacrifice one to the other, succeed in satisfying neither; 
for in Civilization, we see reason producing no valuable results, not 
even that of laying up supplies for the future, which is a guarantee 
against famine. Without this guarantee, a society with all'its theories 
of political economy has less wisdom than the ant which is trodden 
under foot. Now, when with the light derived from these theories, we 
sink in intelligence below this humble insect - ; when it is evident that 
human reason has not, as regards providing for the future, risen to a 
level with the instinct of the ant. how can it be doubted that there 
remain great mysteries for us to penetrate in the theory of social Har¬ 
mony, and that we should distrust the men of science who do not 
explore this new scientific field, from which exploration the solution of 
so many great problems might be expected. 

5. The saving of coercive agencies and measures , — of armies , scaf¬ 
folds , prisons, courts of justice , with all the parasitic functionaries, 
which the Civilized and Barbaric Orders of society employ for the 
maintenance of systems based on poverty and repugnant industry. 
These means of coercion would become useless from the moment a system 
of attractive Industry is established. And can it be doubted that we 
are destined to such a system ? It will suffice as a proof that God 
has not created upon the earth any means of constraint, invested with 
divine authority, and superior to any force which could be opposed to 
it by man. We see on our globe neither giants, nor centaurs, nor tri¬ 
tons, nor agents of any kind capable of vanquishing human armies, 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


149 


though it would have been so easy for God to have created on the 
land and in the seas beings of colossal size and strength, capable of 
at once subduing man in case of rebellion against his will. The ab¬ 
sence of such creations denotes that coercion does not enter into the 
plans of God, and that a social Order emanating from'him would be 
exempt from it. 

If God did not possess the lever of Attraction, he would be obliged 
*o resort to coercion — to create in the firmament colossal planets which 
should urge on the smaller ones, restrain them, and compel them to 
move in their orbits. It would have been the same on the earth, 
where God would have been obliged to create distinct species of men 
of monstrous size and power — to create minotaurs, giants, tritons, cen¬ 
taurs, etc., to compel men to exercise Industry and to adopt any sys¬ 
tem which he might ordain. He would also have been compelled to 
create gigantic bees to force the smaller ones to gather honey, and 
gigantic beavers to force the smaller ones to construct their dams. 

Then again, these colossal species might themselves disobey God, 
if they were not impelled by Attraction to the service he had assigned 
to them. God would then be obliged to employ Attraction with some 
and coercion with others, and to practice intentionally duplicity of sys- 
em, when he could follow unity of system by imparting to all his 
cieatures Attraction for their functions, which would lead them to 
prompt and cheerful obedience, and enthusiastic conformity to his will. 

How can we suppose that God, who is a being of supreme good¬ 
ness and supreme wisdom, has taken pleasure in complicating the social 
mechanism by coercive measures, which would render it necessary to 
double the number of agents for the maintenance of order, and would 
cause the unhappiness of the great majority of mankind. How could 
God, whose pivotal attribute is unity of system, deprive himself volun¬ 
tarily of the marvellous lever — Attraction — which, already employed 
with entire success as the agent of sidereal harmonies, must, according 
to the principle of unity, be equally adapted to produce harmony in 
the social relations of men ? 

It results from these indications that God, in the social laws which 
he has destined for man, cannot have calculated on any other lever 
than that of Attraction, since he has not provided any means of con¬ 
straint and coercion. After this, how can we explain the inconsistency 
of men who wish, as they say, to conform to the designs of God, yet 
who, refusing to consult Attraction, his sole interpreter in social me- 


150 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


c"hantes, confide blindly in vague and arbitrary systems of morality and 
legislation, notwithstanding that the tenacity of the seven subversive 
scourges has proved for three thousand years the entire incompatibil¬ 
ity of these systems with the designs of God, and their incapacity to 
reveal the theory of human destinies and the divine social Code ? 

6 . Direct and active recompense of worlds that are docile to Attrac¬ 
tion by the charm which it imparts, and indirect and passive punish¬ 
ment of worlds that are rebellious, without resort to violence, but by 
the cravings of unsatisfied desire or the martyrdom of Attraction, which 
is the lot of globes that .persist in living under the laws of men. 

It would not comport with the dignity of the Supreme Being to in¬ 
flict direct punishment on globes or individuals that are rebellious ; there 
would then no longer exist any free-will How could we be free to 
choose between the divine Order or industrial association, and the phi¬ 
losophic Order or industrial incoherence, if God made use of his power 
to punish rebellious globes by direct chastisement? There can be no 
freedom of will where there is a certainty of punishment in case a 
choice is made. God, to leave us free-will, had no other alternative 
than to forego the power of inflicting direct punishment, and to permit 
an indirect or passive punishment,^that of unsatisfied desire; this 
punishment is equitable, because it is proportioned in all cases to the 
resistance of the rebellious subject, and involves no special punishment, 
no exercise of divine wrath. 

The resistance to the demands of Attraction and to the permanence 
of its impulsion is a light evil at first. We may try for a brief period 
to restrain ourselves, to despise the goods of this world, and when we 
lack the necessaries of life, console ourselves by reading Seneca. We 
might succeed, perhaps, in becoming indifferent to privations, if the 
objects of desire were not constantly displayed before our eyes, while 
suffering from the want of them. We see everywhere, even in our vil¬ 
lages, a small number of rich, the sight of whose wealth provokes the 
desires of the destitute multitude, and subjects them to the fate of 
Tantalus. Thus Attraction, by the effect of long-continued privations, 
degenerates into a torment; but this suffering is not direct vengeance 
on the part of God, for globes are always free to change their policy, 
to abandon the guidance of false science with its incoherent Industry 
and poverty, and secure the reign of justice and truth with abundance, 
by organizing the Combined Order. By the time that nations begin 
to reflect on their sufferings, and to comprehend the disorders of the 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


151 


social world, they are in possession of the arts of agriculture and manu¬ 
factures, which are necessary to the organization of Association : there 
will then be nothing to prevent them from rising to a happy destinj’-, 
provided they recognize the necessity of a divine social Order, and 
discover it. It is not God, then, who prevents men from attaining to 
a state of happiness; they deprive themselves of it by their own act 
in not comprehending the necessity of such an Order, and the univer¬ 
sality of his Providence. 

Let us remark that the martyrdom of Attraction weighs upon the 
rich as well as the poor, and that we see among the former, whose hap¬ 
piness is the subject of envy, a large number consumed by ennui and 
gnawed by unsatisfied desire. Let us listen on this point to Madame 
de Maintenon: u O that I could make you feel the ennui which de¬ 
vours the great, and the trouble they find in passing away their time! 
The annoyance which they suffer from that crowd of servants with which 
they cannot dispense ; the restlessness which leads them to change from 
place to place without finding one that pleases them; the wearisome¬ 
ness which follows them even upon the throne ! Do you not see that 
I am dying of sadness while enjoying all the favors of fortune, and that 
it is only the aid of God that prevents- me from sinking under it (a 
feeble aid if it left her to die of ennui). I have been young and hand¬ 
some ; I have tasted every form of pleasure; I hove been everywhere 
loved at a more advanced age ; I have passed years in the society of 
the learned and the intelligent; I have obtained the favor of royalty, 
and I protest to you that all these enjoyments leave only a frightful 
void, a restlessness, a lassitude, a desire to reach something higher, 
because in all this there is nothing that satisfies fully.” 

If people are devoured with ennui when they have arrived at the 
summit of greatness, what must it be in case ambition is. frustrated ? We 
see persons dying of despair in consequence of a disappointment. The 
learned chemist, Fourcroy, it is said, died from this cause on seeing 
the presidency of the university given to M. Fontanes. Sir Samuel 
Romily fell into a state of despondency and committed suicide while 
laboring under an attack of fever, because Mr. Abbot, instead of him¬ 
self, was appointed chancellor. Examine twenty heads of families taken 
at hazard, and you will see nineteen with whom the want of fortune 
is a perpetual torment. This state of suffering and disappointment is 
also the lot of women who have passed the period of youth, and who 
have no interest capable of occupying their attention. Everywhere we 


152 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


see this martyrtlom of Attraction, — even among the most humble 
classes. Here a peasant is devoured by vexation for having failed to 
secure a farm which some neighbor lias obtained; there a young girl 
pines away and dies in consequence of a marriage being broken off. 
"We see everywhere these bitter disappointments which cannot exist in 
the Combined Order; its organization will be such as to secure to each 
passion various modes of development and satisfaction, forming a diver¬ 
sion for each other, and attended by a variety and succession of plea¬ 
sures so well interlinked, that occasional reverses will cause at the 
most but a temporary sadness, which would be promptly dissipated. 

Such is the effect of passional equilibrium, to which man can attain 
only on condition that the twelve passions are developed in the con¬ 
trasted, rivalized and interlinked Series. Out of this mechanism, our 
souls find, even at the summit of human greatness what Madame Main- 
tenon well describes as a frightful void, a restlessness, a lassitude, a 
desire to attain to something higher. 

We have now analyzed in the martyrdom of Attraction the means 
of indirect , punishment, which is effected without a direct or special 
chastisement, and without any exercise of positive vengeance, which 
would be degrading to the Deity. This is the sixth economy which 
God derives from the employment of Attraction. Let us consider 
the last. 

7. Accord of sound Reason with Nature ; that is, the guarantee of 
attaining to health and pleasure, which are the promptings of Nature, 
combined with the practice of justice and truth, which are the aim of 
sound reason, and which can reign only in Association. 

One of the finest characteristics of Association is that it is capable 
of reconciling reason and Nature, and of establishing harmony between 
all those classes which in the Civilized state are at variance with each 
other; namely, the young and old, the rich and poor, masters and 
servants, the virtuous and vicious; it reconciles all varieties of char¬ 
acter by establishing concert between those two directing agents which 
in Civilization are opposed to each other: that is, by making reason 
agree with the impulse of Nature, or Attraction. Let us take an 
example, which will illustrate the necessity of having recourse to the 
Combined Order to effect this result. 

I will take it from the love of riches, which of all passions is the 
most general. Let us observe the contradictory opinions that exist 
upon this subject. 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


153 


The sage in Civilization would have men despise riches and plea¬ 
sures, and sacrifice them to the cause of truth ; but the man of the world 
does not counsel this contempt of riches; he prefers to preserve them 
in order to procure the delights of life and satisfy its wants; in short, 
he would have men prefer the reaj charms of fortune to the equivocal 
charms of truth and moral subtilties. 

Who is in the wrong in this case, the wise man or the man of the 
world ? Both, we answer, in Civilization. 

The sage who is mo master of the art of acquiring riches, meets for 
the most part only with contempt, and has no influence to ensure an 
adoption of his views, however praiseworthy they may be. The indi¬ 
gent sage compromises wisdom itself, brings it into discredit, and ex¬ 
poses it to the derision of a purely mercantile age which estimates 
every thing by the money it will bring. 

A man must, like Seneca, possess millions before he can preach the 
love of poverty with success; once in possession of such a fortune, the 
philosopher will be a sage, whatever principles he may profess. In 
Civilization, then, a sage without fortune is placed in a ridiculous atti¬ 
tude. As to the man of the world who loves riches, is it certain that 
he is in the wrong ? Every one will reply with a smile: “ If it is a 
fault, the number of the erring is immense, and the innocent are only 
to be found in the Academy of the moral Sciences, which extols the 
charms of poverty.” Is it certain, on the other hand, that the man of 
the world is entirely right in loving riches ? No; if we take into con¬ 
sideration the odious means he must adopt to acquire them. In both 
cases, then, there is a mixture of wisdom and folly, a conflict of prin¬ 
ciples which cannot be reconciled in the present social state, -Because 
we find that riches are necessary, but that they should be acquired by 
other methods than those of fraud, which in Civilization are the main 
avenue to fortune. 

An investigation of the subject will, then, bring men of all shades 
of opinion to desire a social Order which may lead to wealth by the 
practice of justice and truth ; this is demanding the extinction of Civ¬ 
ilization and Barbarism, and the substitution in their place of the Com¬ 
bined Order in which the practice of justice will lead to wealth. In 
such an Order, it will be commendable to love riches and truth at the 
same time; the two impulses will act in concert, and to the same end; 
Attraction will be no longer assailed by reason, and man will be at 
peace with Nature and with himself. There will then be unity between 

7 * 


154 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


Wisdom and the Passions, which now are in complete duplicity of 
action ; for whatever social arrangements may be devised, it is impos¬ 
sible in the Civilized Order to reconcile reason with Attraction. 

Thus the moralists of the present day, who are trimmers and mere 
literary chameleons, have made concessions and adopted subterfuges, 
which surrender the claims of truth, and pander to the love of wealth, 
under cover of verbose declamations on the virtue of moderation. We 
can look for wisdom only in an order of things in which the impulses 
of Attraction may coincide with the practice of virtue. 

If we reflect that God alone can effect an end so desirable, since 
he can inspire Attraction for whatever social Order he r may choose, 
how can we doubt that he has exercised this sublime attribute in pro¬ 
viding for us a social Code, adapted to the demands and requirements 
of Attraction. 

When we recall its marvellous functions,—the sevenfold guarantee 
which it ensures to God and man for establishing a perfect accord be¬ 
tween the passions and reason, for realizing the probable desires of the 
Creator with the known desires of the creature,—how can it be supposed 
that God, unless^ he is the most malevolent of beings, should have pre¬ 
ferred Coercion, which even under the sanction of morality, is but 
oppression, and which is an agency unworthy of a sovereign master, 
who had it in his power to secure obedience and love by imparting 
Attraction for the works which he requires of us ? 

I have remarked, that being able to choose only between two agents, 

. Coercion or Attraction, by selecting the former he would derogate from 
his .essential attributes — from Economy of Means, Distributive Justice, 
and also from Universality of Providence, since he has established on 
the globe no means of coercion which would conduce to unity, the 
aim of his creative efforts. The coercive methods to which men resort, 
establish only universal discord between nations and individuals. If, 
then, these methods were in conformity with the purposes of the Deity, 
he would be in reality the fictitious being that we style Satan; be- 
oause when, able to secure to the human race unity and happiness by 
the agency of Attraction, he would have preferred intentionally to in¬ 
stitute discord and universal misery by selecting coercive methods, and 
repudiating the seven guarantees which Attraction alone can secure. 

If the present age which makes guarantees a subject of study, had 
analyzed the seven which I have described, would it have delayed the 
investigation of the science that promises us blessings so immense ? 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


155 


Moreover, of what account is that respect for nature which the philos¬ 
ophers pretend to entertain ? If they believe that nature should be 
consulted in the study of man and his social destiny, how can they 
show that Attraction is not an element of human nature, and that man 
can be studied without the investigation of Passional Attraction, of 
which they have said not a word in their countless systems? But 
this is an oversight to be expected from writers who, pretending to 
lead us back to nature, admire a state of society in which Man is 
despoiled of his seven natural rights, and that without any indemnity. 

CONCLUSION. 

A fault of most readers is that they make no abstract of what they 
read, and preserve no general idea which serves them as. a guide. 
After having read this dissertation on Attraction, many will simply 
say: “ Here are opinions set forth quite new and extraordinary; and 
they will then fall again under the sway of their habitual prejudices 
without deriving any advantage from the perusal. We must, therefore, 
draw one conclusion from what has preceded, and call the reader’s 
especial attention to it. 

Tn the preceding chapter we reduced to two points the problem of 
our destiny, raising an issue between the Deity and human reason. 
We have shown that God should have devised for us a social Code, 
and provided the means for its revelation. It is evident from the 
explanations given that he has fulfilled this two-fold duty. 

We have seen further, that it devolved on man to seek for the 
divine Code in the study of Attraction. It is evident that human rea¬ 
son has failed to perform its duty. But as the fault is now remedied, 
and the social Code discovered, nothing more remains than to submit 
it to a critical examination, and to a practical trial. 

But to render this examination impartial and- judicious, two condi¬ 
tions must be fulfilled : The first is that the examiner shall be thor¬ 
oughly persuaded of the immense results which are to be derived from 
the new social Order. Of these there can be no adequate appreciation 
as yet, for I have given no description of them ; another portion of 
the work is to be devoted to that point, and when the results of the 
Combined Order shall be understood, and be compared with those of 
Civilization, the examiner will be in a condition to scrutinize rationally 
and without prejudice the Theory of Association. 

A second condition is that the examiner shall be thoroughly con- 


156 


SEVEN GUARANTEES. 


vinced that the speculative sciences have completely misled and per¬ 
verted the hnman understanding. 

And in all frankness let me ask, what have been the achievements 
of these sciences during the past century ? Shall we enumerate them ? 
They are materialism, atheism, revolutionary commotions without result, 
a shameful and inhuman political policy, commercial corruption and 
depravity, increase of taxation, increase of national loans and the 
mortgaging of the future, deterioration of climate ; such are the achieve¬ 
ments of the social world under the guidance of the speculative sci¬ 
ences. And when Civilization, in its pride, does not perceive these 
evils, are we not justified in asserting that the leaders of opinion in it 
are incapable of pronouncing a sound judgment on discoveries which 
are without the pale of its ordinary experience, and that they must be 
brought by repeated criticism to that candor and modesty which have 
characterized many eminent thinkers, who, like Socrates, confessed their 
ignorance, and waited for the light some day to descend. 


CHAPTER TENTH. 


THE ALTERNATIVE, IN THE DIVINE MIND, BETWEEN AS¬ 
SOCIATED AND ISOLATED INDUSTRY. 

Our age boasts of its capacity of abstract speculation, and of its 
freedom from prejudice 5 in examining the subject before us, namely, 
the choice which must have existed in the Divine mind between Asso¬ 
ciated and Isolated Industry, I invite it to abstract itself from civilized 
habits of thought, to free itself from dominant prejudices, and weigh with 
candor the results claimed for an industrial system, which, based on an 
entirely different set of usages from those that prevail at present, and 
substituting the Series of groups for isolated individual action, must 
necessarily produce results entirely unlike those attained by the meth¬ 
ods of Civilization. 

Let us here apply some of the maxims which the philosophers have 
laid down as the rules of scientific exploration : 

1 . To believe that Nature is not limited to known means J 

2. To beware of taking opinions, which have become generally re¬ 
ceived, for established principles ; 

3. To forget what we have been taught in social polity, and go 
back to first principles and to the source of ideas. 

Let me propose a few conjectures in regard to the social and pas¬ 
sional destiny of man in accordance with these three established 
maxims of philosophy. 

1 . To believe that nature is not limited to known means: it may- 
then be presumed that she holds in reserve some other means of pro¬ 
secuting Industry than the isolated and incoherent method. This method, 
far from being based on any true social art, is but an indication 
of the absence of genius, a mark of the ignorance and apathy of an¬ 
cient and modern politics and of the exact sciences, whose duty it was 
to discover the true social order. 

Rude nature assembles human beings by pairs in savage huts; this 
is an association for the purpose of reproducing the species, and not 


158 


THE ALTERNATIVE. 


for the prosecution of Industry. There remained then to be discov¬ 
ered a system of industrial association. 

Neglecting inquiry upon this point, the only one needing urgent 
investigation, the philosophers have assumed that the savage system, 
the conjugal couple, or household, was the social destiny of man. But 
this union of pairs is the sheer absence of all combination, since it is 
the most restricted form of domestic combination. 

Philosophy, however, has never condescended to investigate the 
subject of domestic association. The ancient philosophers, being di¬ 
verted from this inquiry by the institution of slavery, and swayed, 
moreover, by ambitious aspirations—taking part, as they did for the 
most part, in political affairs—could see in social polity nothing but 
political questions, and never dreamed of extending inquiries and re¬ 
forms into other departments. They left domestic industry in the rude 
state in which they found it, that is, to be prosecuted by the single 
couple. 

Their negligence is a fact not to be denied ; there has been no in¬ 
quiry by them as to new methods of industrial and domestic organiza¬ 
tion, which may be held in reserve by nature, which they describe, 
however, as not limited to known means. Why, then, suppose her re¬ 
stricted to a single industrial method — to the isolated household , having 
no cooperation with neighbomng households ? Is not that the error 
which they themselves denounce when they advise us to beware of 
mistaidng opinions generally received for principles. 

In contempt of this maxim, they have elevated their ancient prejudice 
in favor of incoherent industry and the isolated household to the dignity 
of a principle, and declare it to be the exclusive and irreversible destiny 
of man, and the ultimate limit of social perfection. 

Let us confront these ancient prejudices with the theory of the Pas¬ 
sional Series and the associated household. But to appreciate this dis¬ 
covery and the brilliant results to spring from it, it is necessary, in 
accordance with the maxim of the philosophers, to forget what we have 
been taught in regard to the permanence of the system of incoherence 
and isolation, to dismiss for the time our pre-conceived opinions, and 
go back to the source of ideas. 

What is the source of ideas in social science ? Is it to be found 
in the reveries of Socrates and Plato ? Certainly not; we must ascend 
to Divine conceptions, which are far anterior to those of human reason. 
Before creating worlds, God must have legislated on their social Des- 


THE ALTERNATIVE. 


159 


tiny, and on tlie best possible system for their domestic and industrial 
relations. Let us go back, then, to the original idea of society, to the 
Divine purpose in regard to the industrial and domestic order that 
should prevail in it. 

For the prosecution of human labor, God could only choose be¬ 
tween groups and individuals, between associated and combined 
action on the one hand, and individual and incoherent action on the 
other. This principle must be constantly borne in mind. 

As a wise organizer, he could not have calculated on the employ¬ 
ment of isolated couples , laboring without cooperation, according to the 
practice of the civilized method ; for individual action contains within 
itself seven germs of disorganization, each one of which would alone 
suffice to engender a multitude of disorders. From the catalogue of 
evils attendant on individual action, which here follows, we can easily 
judge whether God could do otherwise than condemn that system of 
isolated Industry in which they are all essential parts. 

TUB EVILS ATTENDANT ON INDIVIDUAL ACTION IN THE EXERCISE OP 

INDUSTRY. 

Transition. — Hireling labor, indirect servitude. 

1. Death of the laborer or operator. 

2. Inconstancy of the individual in his works and enterprises. 

3. Dissimilarity of character between father and son. 

4. Want of economy in social combinations. 

5. Fraud, theft and general distrust. 

6 . Suspension of labor for want of means. 

7. Hostility and conflict between rival enterprises. 

( Conflict between the individual and the collect- 

Pivots. J ive interest. 

( Absence of unity in plans, and in their execution. 

God would have admitted all these evils as the foundation of.the 
social structure, if he had adopted the incoherent and isolated system 
of Industry; can we attribute to the Creator such folly? Let me de¬ 
vote a few paragraphs to a consideration of these defects, and contrast 
them with the corresponding results which would be produced by the 
associative method. 

1. Death : This is an event likely to arrest the most useful enter¬ 
prises of an individual, and under circumstances in which no second 


.160 


THE ALTERNATIVE. 


party is disposed to continue them, nor possessed of the necessary cap¬ 
ital and talent. 

** The Passional Series never die; the members whom death from 
time to time removes, are replaced by new members. 

2. Inconstancy : it takes frequent possession of the individual, 
and causes him to disregard or change operations already begun; it 
is incompatible with the attainment of perfection in any enterprise, and 
with stability. 

** The Series are not subject to inconstancy; this defect will cause 
neither suspension of labor nor unsteadiness in the prosecution of it. 
If it should occasion the loss of some members every year, other aspi¬ 
rants will take their places, and reestablish equilibrium, which will 
further be maintained by calling upon the older members, who are an 
auxiliary corps, in case of urgency. 

3. Dissimilarity of character between father and son, and between 
testator and heir; labors commenced by one of these parties are from 
this cause frequently abandoned or rendered valueless by the other. 

** The Series are exempt from this evil, because the principle of 
unity in the Series is affinity of inclination, and not the tie of consan¬ 
guinity, which is frequently the source of difference in inclinations. 

4. Want of economy in social combinations: economy is an advan¬ 
tage incompatible with isolated individual action; to economise in all 
forms of labor, whether of the household or in agriculture, large num¬ 
bers must act in concert. 

** The Series, by the double means of the employment of large 
numbers and associated- action, carry economy to the highest possible 
degree. I have explained this sufficiently in the preceding part of the 
work. 

5. Fraud and theft , vices incidental to every enterprise, in which 
the parties have not a joint interest, with a distribution of profits pro¬ 
portional to each one’s investment in the form of Capital, Labor and 
Skill. 

** The Serial mechanisip, entirely secure against fraud and theft, is 
not compelled to resort to thqse ruinous precautions which they now 
necessitate. 

6 . Suspension of Industry for want of work, of land, machines, 
instruments,,work-shops, and other appliances, which is constantly par¬ 
alyzing civilized industry. 

** Obstacles of this nature are unknown in the Combined Order, 


THE ALTERNATIVE. 161 

where everything requisite to the completeness and perfection of labor 
is constantly supplied. 

7. Conflict of enterprises: the rivalries of the civilized order are 
characterized by rancor, not by generous emulation. A manufacturer 
seeks to crush his competitor; the industrial classes are hosts of mu¬ 
tual enemies. 

** There is nothing of this anti-social spirit prevailing in the Series, 
where each is interested in the success of all the rest, and in which 
the whole body undertakes only those branches of cultivation and 
manufactures, for the products of which there is a sure demand. 

Conflict between the individual and the collective interest ; as illustrated 
in the destruction of game and fish, and of forests. 

** A different spirit exists in the Series, in which there is a unan¬ 
imous effort to preserve all sources of wealth, and promote the collect¬ 
ive good. 

Absence of unity in plans and in their execution: the Civilized 
Order is a monstrous conglomeration of all manner of duplicities. 

** The Social Organization, on the contrary, is the combination 
of all possible unities. 

Finally, hireling labor , or indirect servitude , which is the source 
of misfortune, persecution and despair for the industrial classes in 
Civilization. 

** This condition contrasts strongly, with that of the industrious 
classes of the Combined Order, who enjoy to the full extent the seven 
natural rights of man. 

After an examination of this catalogue of evils, the reader may 
draw his own conclusions; he must admit that the Deity, possessing 
the alternative between these two social systems, between innumerable 
practical absurdities on the one hand, and countless perfections on the 
other, there can be no doubt as to which system he must have given 
his sanction. 

Any doubt on this point would be a distrust of his wisdom and 
inconsistent with his attributes, particularly with the first, Economy 
of means ; he would go counter to this attribute, if he gave the prefer¬ 
ence to isolated over associated Industry, for the latter secures econo¬ 
mies of every description; it dispenses with constraint, economises 
health, time, labor and machinery; and avoids anxiety, discourage¬ 
ment, theft, and waste of all kinds, as well as duplicity of action. 

Such, in brief, is some of the knowledge we should have acquired 


162 


THE ALTERNATIVE- 


on the subject of social science, if, according to the precept of Con¬ 
dillac, we had endeavored for a time to forget our scientific prejudices, 
lay them entirely aside, and go back to the origin of ideas. 

Now the origin of social ideas is to be found only in the wisdom 
of God, who. long before the creation of Man, must have estimated 
the comparative worth of the two social systems, the isolated and the 
associative, and by reason of his necessary preference for the latter, 
must have framed our passions in conformity with it; hence it is, that 
we find them incompatible with the Civilized Order. 

We ought not to be surprised that passions, such as cupidity, 
inconstancy and love of good living, pernicious in the present order, 
should find a useful function in the associative system ; and that the 
education of the Combined Order should calculate upon the unre¬ 
stricted play of the passions, which are hurtful in the isolated or 
civilized system, because their proper theatre of action is that Order. 

According to the unanimous teachings of the philosophers, Man is 
made for society ; if this principle is true, does man tend naturally to 
the most restricted form of society, or to the largest ? Doubtless to 
the latter, in which are to be found all the advantages of combination 
and economy; and since men have established only the smallest 
possible society, that of a single couple in the isolated household, do 
we need any further proof, that this order is the direct opposite of 
that to which we are destined ? 

Our system of sub-division into couples reduces the means of con¬ 
certed action, economy, wealth and virtue to the minimum degree. 
Families, forming with their children isolated households, are the ele¬ 
ment of extreme discord, and the antipode of Association and wealth ; 
hence, to make the family state the pivot of the social system is to 
labor directly to organize disunion and poverty. 

I have just shown that we cannot suppose this domestic organiza¬ 
tion to be the intention of the Deity. If, as cannot be doubted, the 
opposite system, that of Association, is the true one, it follows: 

1. That the passions which he created must all have been framed 
with reference to the requirements of Association, and are all incom¬ 
patible with the isolated or civilized state. 

2. That the ssme passions must produce in the civilized or iso¬ 
lated Order all those results which are opposed to the purposes of 
God, that is, to truth, justice, economy and unity. 

3. That we should expect from the passions, developed according 


THE ALTERNATIVE. 


163 

to the associative mode, as many blessings as they engender scourges 
in the isolated order. 

Such are the conclusions to which the world would long ago have 
arrived, if it had been inclined, according to the advice of philoso¬ 
phers, to go back to the origin of social ideas, to ascend to their 
source, to the designs of God as to the true form of human society. 





APPENDIX 


Note I. —See Page 21. 

GENERAL VIEW OF THE THEORY OF UNIVERSAL UNITY. 

What is the Destiny of Man ? What the function assigned him to 
perform, the work to execute, by that Power which has called him into 
.existence, and placed him on the planet he inhabits ? We do not speak 
of Man’s destiny hereafter, or of the special destiny of the individual, but 
of the collective Destiny of Humanity on this earth. Asked at all great 
epochs of inquiry, this first and most important of questions has re¬ 
ceived as yet no answer that satisfies the human mind, none that has 
obtained universal assent. 

The Theory of Universal Unity is Fourier’s answer to the 
question; it embodies his conception of the Destiny of Humanity. Be¬ 
fore explaining what is to be understood by Universal Unity , we wiil 
glance ^ at the two leading solutions of the problem which have been 
offered in the past. They come from Religion and Philosophy. 

Religion — based upon the aspiration in the human soul for the In¬ 
finite and Universal, for Unity and Harmony — declares in substance 
that Man is a fallen being, in a state of sin and corruption. A curse 
rests upon him ; he is at war with God ; the earth is an abode of 
misery, a valley of tears. The supreme object which he should have 
in view is to purge himself of his sins, to regenerate himself, to effect 
a reconciliation with God — who in His mercy has reserved to him the 
means — and thus secure his salvation in the life to come. Religion, 
looking upon the present state of existence as a fallen one, considers it 
as a probation through which Man must pass ; if he combats and over¬ 
comes the temptations that beset him ; if he conquers evil and regen¬ 
erates himself, he is rewarded hereafter with eternal happiness; if he 
fails, he is lost and an eternity of evil awaits him. Our present exist¬ 
ence is then merely a probationai y one, a preparation for another life, 
in which the solution of this will be found. The Human Race, as a 
wliple, has on this earth no great collective work to accomplish, no im¬ 
portant function to fulfill, no high destiny to attain. Each individual 
has his own special destiny to work out, which is to secure, if he can, 
his salvation in another world. As to the present life, the poverty, dis- 





166 


APPENDIX. 


coni and suffering which have existed through all the past, will con¬ 
tinue to exist through all the future. 

Philosophy—the creation of the speculative and reasoning faculty 
in man — like Religion, conceives of no collective Destiny for Human¬ 
ity. If we examine the various theories of Philosophy which have ex¬ 
isted, and take the opinions most generally entertained, we shall find 
that they arrive practically at about the same conclusions as' Religion. 
They hold, for example, that Man is an imperfect being, in whom the 
lower and material instincts govern ; that he is sensual and selfish, and 
incapable consequently of any high moral elevation and of wise and 
balanced thought. Philosophy does not speculate on the fall, on ori¬ 
ginal sin with its consequences, but it holds that the instincts and pas¬ 
sions are bad, that they possess an inherent selfishness, a tendency to 
strife and conflict, which unfit them for the practice of justice and 
concord; this view amounts practically to the same thing as the doc¬ 
trine of Depravity. Looking upon the history of the Past with its con¬ 
flicts and discords, its vices and crimes, as the natural and permanent 
condition of mankind, and on Man, undeveloped, or perverted by false 
social influences, as in his normal state, it come3 to the conclusion that 
social incoherence and evil are for ever to reign on the earth. In the 
trials and vicissitudes of life, in which fate or chance rules, it recom¬ 
mends, not the striving for salvation in another world as does Religion, 
but the exercise of a wise temperance or a stoical resignation as the best 
means of meeting and overcoming them. These views are equivalent 
to a denial that Humanity has any collective Destiny to fulfill on this 
earth, any great work to accomplish by its genius and its united la¬ 
bors. Destiny is individual; each being must work out for himself, as 
best he is able, his own fate or welfare. 

Religion and philosophy, then, do not differ essentially in their 
views of human destiny. As both are ignorant that the human race 
is still in the early phase of its social career on earth; that is, in its 
Social Infancy ; that in this early transitional phase it is subject to 
ignorance and, as a consequence, to error and discord—in a word, to 
social evil — they believe that what is, is natural and eternal, and draw 
their conclusions as to the future from the troubled experience of the 
past and present. 

A few eminent thinkers, who form an exception to the schools, 
have conceived the idea that Humanity is one — a collective being 
having a collective destiny to fulfill on earth, and subject to a unitary 


APPENDIX. 


167 


and progressive development. Fourier takes this view; he holds that 
the Human Race, composed of the totality of human beings that, live 
through the ages, is ONE; that it lives, grows, and acquires experience 
like the individual man ; that, like him, it goes through a career; that 
it has its social infancy , youth, manhood , and old age , and that it has 
a great work to accomplish on earth by its collective labors. 

The Human Race, he considers, is still in its social Infancy ; and 
this explains the cause of the existence of poverty, ignorance, discord 
— in a word, of evil on earth. 

The infancy of the race is analogous in principle to that of the 
individual man, but differs from it in the mode of its manifestations. 
The race, during its infancy, is, like the individual, weak, ignorant, and 
subject to incoherent action. It is weak, because it has not developed, 
perfected and organized Industry, which is the source of its power 
and its control over the material world. It is ignorant, because it has 
not developed and perfected the Sciences, which are its collective 
reason, and are necessary to it, as guide, in its collective labors and 
relations. It is subject to incoherent action and social discord—to 
fraud, oppression and war — because it has not discovered and estab¬ 
lished true political and social Institutions that are capable of harmo¬ 
nizing the interests and relations of its members. 

We believe that the hypothesis, that Humanity is in the early phase 
of its terrestrial career, is perfectly correct. We have only a few 
thousand years of authentic history, and certainly they can form but 
a small part, a fragment of its entire life on the planet. The history 
of the past, which appears so vast to the mind that takes no general 
survey bf human destiny, will appear a brief period to him who can 
grasp the entire career of the race on the globe. Let us conceive, 
then, of Humanity as a collective unitary being, living and develop¬ 
ing itself upon this planet, learning and acquiring experience by the 
labors of successive generations, making experiments of all kinds in 
industry, government, science, religion, etc., and elevating itself grad¬ 
ually from a rude and ignorant state to one of high social develop¬ 
ment, in which it will possess a perfect system of industry, govern¬ 
ment, religion, and social institutions. In this progress, it goes neces¬ 
sarily through a social infancy, that is, a preparatory phase, during 
which it develops the elements of a true social organism. The race, 
as we stated, is in this early phase, and this fact explains the cause 
of the evils which exist on the earth. Evil is an accompaniment of 


168 


APPENDIX. 


the early and transitional phase of a career ; immaturity and imper¬ 
fection exist in it; the being is subject, on the one hand, to ignorance, 
and, as a consequence, to discord and error, and on the other, to phy¬ 
sical troubles and disorders of various kinds. The infant man must, for 
example, cut his teeth, and suffer in the operation; an infant Human¬ 
ity must in like manner go through the painful process of developing 
Industry; and, while engaged in the work, it is subject to poverty 
and all the evils which it engenders, and this unavoidably, since In¬ 
dustry is the only source of wealth. Thus the collective being, called 
Humanity — of which the different races are the members, and the 
individuals the molecules—lives, develops its powers, and acquires 
knowledge and experience like the individual man. It must discover 
and establish a true social Order for the regulation of its labors, inter¬ 
ests, and relations ; it is now engaged in creating its elements, which 
are Industry, Art, Science, political and social Institutions, and Reli¬ 
gion. The discoveries and acquisitions of each generation are trans¬ 
mitted to those that follow, so that the life of the race is a continuous 
and progressive whole. From the earliest period of history, there has 
been a continued progress in the general development of society, 
although there has been at periods a temporary suspension in the pro¬ 
gress of some of its elements, but not of a character to prevent the 
general onward march of Humanity. The Middle Ages, for example, 
show, as compared with Greece and Rome, a retrogradation 'in art and 
science, but a great progress in the religious element, in the moral 
sentiments, in the elevation of the masses — slavery being transformed 
into serfdom — and even in Industry. 

The infancy of the race, when compared with that of the individ¬ 
ual, is an immensely long one ; thousands of years enter into it. The 
human mind, but little accustomed to high generalizations and to a 
methodical study of abstract questions, becomes bewildered when it 
undertakes to grasp five thousand years of history, to look upon it as 
one phase in a great career, and to see progress and order amid the 
apparently incoherent movements of human history. Lost in what 
appears to it the immensity of the past, it looks upon that past as 
the natural and permanent state of mankind, and concludes that the 
future will resemble it. To penetrate the mystery of human history, 
and comprehend the law of human progress, it must understand the 
theory of Careers; it must know that humanity, like all finite beings, 
goes through a career; that a career has necessarily a beginning, a 


APPENDIX. 


169 


middle, and an end; that the beginning — which, with animate beings, 
is called infancy — is a period of immaturity and imperfection, accom¬ 
panied by evil under some form, and that it must differ essentially in 
character from the phase of maturity or full development, which is a 
state of relative perfection, accompanied by good. Comprehending the 
theory of careers, the human mind will see in the history of the past 
a series of infantile efforts and experiments on the part of Humanity 
to organize a true social order, and attain to its destiny. 

With these preliminary remarks, we will now ask: What is the 
destiny Of humanity on this earth ? What function is assigned it to 
perform ? What is the social state at which it is ultimately to arrive ? 

The Destiny of Humanity, according to Fourier, is to elevate itself 
to Universal Unity. 

Stated in the simplest form, Universal Unity comprises three pri¬ 
mary unities: 

Unity of Man with Nature. 

Unity of Man with himself and with his Race. 

Unity of Man with the Universe. 

Pivot: Unity of Man with God . 

The first Unity — that of Man with Nature — supposes the scientific 
cultivation and the artistic embellishment of the earth’s surface, and the 
perfect development of the animal and vegetable kingdoms upon it; 
it is the creation of material unity and harmony on the globe, to be 
effected by the combined industrial labors of mankind. 

The material is, in all spheres of life, the basis of the spiritual: 
the development of the latter cannot be normal and harmonious unless 
order and unity reign in the former. The individual soul, for example, 
is thwarted, is perverted in its action in an imperfect or dis¬ 
ordered body ; and, in like manne.r, the collective soul of Humanity 
is perverted in its social life and development upon a globe on which 
physical disorder reigns. 

The earth is the scene on w'hich Humanity develops its life and ac¬ 
complishes its destiny; material harmony must reign upon the planet to 
facilitate its labors and development, Instead of harmony, incoherence 
and disorder exist in all departments of the physical world — in the 
condition of its surface, in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, in the 
climate and the atmospheric system, and also in its magnetic currents 
or its electric system.* 

* We will point out briefly some of the disorders which exist in the leading 

8 




170 


APPENDIX. 


It is for Humanity to correct the false condition of its terrestrial 
domain; it must establish the reign of material harmony upon it, 
which it can effect by its combined industrial labors ; this is the first 
great work which it has to accomplish. 

The second Unity — that of Man with himself and with his Race — 
supposes, first, a high degree of development — physical, intellectual, 
and moral — of the individual man ; and second, the establishment of 
concord, justice and harmony in the social relation of human beings. 
This Unity can only be realized by the discovery and organization of 


departments of Nature, and which thwart man in his Industry, and derange, as a 
consequence, his social life. 

In the waters , by floods and inundations, by prolonged and excessive rains, and 
by stagnant collections, engendering diseases of various kinds. 

In the electric or magnetic system, by earthquakes and tornadoes, which are pro¬ 
bably electric in their nature, by fluctuations and want of equilibrium in the atmos¬ 
phere, by violent thunder storms, and by various derangements in the magnetic 
currents of the earth. This subject is as yet very little understood. 

In the climate , by sudden and excessive fluctuations of temperature, by prolonged 
heated terms in summer, and intense cold in winter, by late and early frosts, by 
the burning state of the tropics, caused by the great deserts, and the frozen state 
of the northern regions, caused by the absence of cultivation. 

In the atmospheric system , by storms and hurricanes, by poisonous winds, like ths 
simoom, by impurities and miasmata of various kinds, arising from swamps and 
marshes, or from neglected regions, like the Campagna of Rome. 

On the surface of the earth — that is, the cuticle of the planet — by deserts 
which, like ulcers, cover the finest portions of the tropical regions, by marshes, 
morasses, jungles, arid steppes, and unreclaimed wildernesses, by ravaged regions, 
once fertile and now barren, like Babylonia and other parts of Asia, and by the 
destruction of forests on mountain ranges, causing the drying up of streams to the 
serious injury ot the climate. 

In the animal kingdom, by beasts of prey, noxious reptiles, and vermin of innu¬ 
merable kinds. 

In the vegetable kingdom , by poisonous plants and useless weeds — the latter 
being, so to say, the vermin of the earth. 

These disorders constitute what we will technically term a state of Subversion, i. e. 
of Disharmony in the physical world ; they establish a conflict, an antagonism be¬ 
tween Man and Nature; they thwart his industry, oppose great obstacles to his 
social progress, and by entailing on him poverty and a continual combat with ma¬ 
terial obstacles, they pervert and degrade his spiritual nature : They place Humanity 
out of Unity with its planet. Let us remark that Man is the standard by which 
Nature is to be judged : he is the pivot of her creations, the thinking, regulative 
and divine Principle on earth ; all things must serve him, and aid him in fulfilling 
his destiny. Whatever is in antagonism with, or injurious to him in the creations 
or in the elements, is evil, and must be corrected or destroyed, for Man can only 
attain to social harmony — to a Divine State — on a globe on which material order 
and unity reign. 



APPENDIX. 171 

a true social Order on earth — the second great work which Humanity 
has to accomplish. 

There exist, in the social world, discords analogous to those which 
exist in the material world ; the list which we have given of the 
latter will enable the reader to form a corresponding one of the 
former; we have, for example, Moral Evils , by the vices and crimes 
that are so prevalent in society ; Political Evils, by oppression and 
war; Administrative Evils, by the tyranny and usurpation of rulers; 
Industrial Evils, by the incoherence and anarchy that reign in commerce 
and industry, by fraud, monopoly and spoliation, and by the strifes 
and hatreds of individuals in their pursuits; Financial Evils, by na¬ 
tional debts and ruinous taxation; Social Evils, by poverty, pauper¬ 
ism, ignorance, antagonistic classes, slavery, serfdom, hireling labor, 
and other forms of individual oppression; Religious Evils, by persecu¬ 
tions, dissensions, and the hatreds of sects. These evils and discords 
must be eradicated, and the reign of social harmony inaugurated in 
their stead. 

The third Unity — that of Man with the Universe — supposes, first, 
the coordination of the life, labors and operations of Humanity on this 
planet with the laws of universal harmony; and second, the fulfillment 
on its part of the function assigned it to perform by supreme Wisdom 
in the general plan of creation. Man, as an independent link in the 
chain of beings, having a function of a universal character to perform 
— which is the supervision of the surface of the planet — enters, on 
fulfilling this function, into Unity with the Universe. 

The realization of these three Unities elevates Humanity to unity 
w r ith the infinite hierarchy of Spirits and with their supreme Pivot— God. 

Having presented this brief outline of the Destiny of the Race, let 
us consider for a moment its condition at the commencement of its 
social career on earth, and draw from it some conclusions as to the 
extent of the labors which it must accomplish in order to attain to 
that Destiny. After this we will enter into a more methodical analysis 
of the three Unities. 

Humanity begins its career, so to say, at zero, without any of 
the means or the resources necessary to accomplish its Destiny. It 
begins without Industry, that is, without a knowledge of agriculture 
or the mechanic arts, without tools, implements or machinery, and 
W'ithout the aid of any of the powers of Nature — steam, etc. It 
must discover and perfect all these, for Industry is the means by 


172 


attendix. 


which it accomplishes the first branch of its Destiny — the industrial 
— and elevates itself to Unity with Nature, or rather elevates Nature 
to Unity with itself, to its ideal of beauty and harmony. It begins 
•without political and social Institutions, establishing at first — guided 
by instinct — such rude and simple regulations as are adapted to its 
rude and simple condition ; as it progresses, new requirements arise, 
which lead it to devise and establish others, and in these experiments, 
it gradually acquires experience in government and social organiza¬ 
tion. It begins without science, that is, without any knowledge of 
Nature, of itself or of the Universe ; by the observations, experiments 
and reflections of successive generations, it gradually penetrates the 
mysteries of creation around it, and in time, it is destined to construct 
a system of universal knowledge. At the present day, after the studies 
of the past ages, it has acquired, if we sum up the results of its 
intellectual labors, some knowledge of Nature, contained in''what is 
called the positive sciences; of the moral sciences or the theory of 
human nature, it has acquired the merest rudimental knowledge, while 
of that of the Universe, with the exception of the planetary move¬ 
ments, none whatever. It begins without the Fine Arts, which are the 
means of refining and idealizing life; it first develops the germs of a 
few of them, and in the rudest manner, as we see by their condition 
in ancient Tndia and Egypt; at the present day — after some four 
thousand years of elaboration — they have received some degree of 
development, and one of them, Music, is nearly perfected, being based 
on positive principles ; the laws of the art are discovered. 

Thus Humanity at the commencement of its social career is ignor¬ 
ant and helpless, without industry, art, science, laws or social institu¬ 
tions ; it must invent or discover, develop and perfect these constit¬ 
uent elements of the Social Organism. It is a great work, the accom¬ 
plishment of which requires the successive efforts of generations, as is 
proved by the fact that the Race, having been engaged upon it from 
the earliest historical times, is still far from having completed it; all 
the elements of Society are in an imperfect and a more or less unde¬ 
veloped state ; even Industry, which is the element the most advanced, 
is not yet perfected and organized'; it is in an incoherent condition, 
prosecuted in a desultory manner by isolated individuals. 

Humanity, while engaged in the process of creating and elaborat¬ 
ing a social Organism, and before it has Completed it. is necessarily 
subject to all the evils attendant upon an imperfect social state. It is 


APPENDIX. 


173 


subject to poverty, for the-reason that it has not perfected and organ¬ 
ized Industry, which is the sole source of wealth; it is subject to 
social incoherence and discord — that is, to war, oppression, fraud, etc. 
— for the reason that it has not discovered and established true laws 
and institutions for the regulation of the social relations of its mem¬ 
bers ; it is ignorant, and subject to prejudices, superstitions and error, 
because it has not discovered the sciences. These evils are unavoid¬ 
able during the early ages of the social career of Humanity ; they 
accompany the process of social development, and could only have 
been prevented on condition that Supreme Wisdom had provided the 
human race at the outset of its career with all things necessary to a 
perfect social state — with dwellings to live in, with tools, implements 
and machinery to create wealth, with science to enlighten it, and with 
true, political and social institutions to regulate its relations. As pro¬ 
gressive development is a universal law, as nothing is created perfect, 
and *as independent action is an attribute of intelligent beings, the 
Deity does not provide Man with these things at the outset, but leaves 
him to discover and create them for himself. 

The Evil which is attendant on the early phase in the social career 
of Humanity, is repeated in a diminished degree and under different 
forms in that of the individual man. The infant, for example, must 
cut its teeth, which is attended with suffering, and it is liable to vari¬ 
ous disorders and diseases, which are connected with the immature 
state of the physical organism; it is ignorant, and it must learn. To 
have avoided these evils and others which grow out of the law of 
progressive development, it would have been necessary, to have created 
man in the prime of life, fully developed, physically and mentally. 
Without examining, in this place, the reason, we will state the fact, 
that Nature does not produce fully developed and perfect organiza¬ 
tions; everything in Nature, from the plant to the man, must pass 
through the transitional phase of infancy and growth — a phase of im¬ 
maturity and incompleteness — and be subject to the imperfections and 
evils attendant upon it. 

From what precedes, we may draw the two following important 
conclusions: First, that Humanity is in its Social Infancy — that is to 
say, in the early transitional phase of its social career, engaged in the 
work of developing and perfecting the elements of socjety ; this is 
proved by the imperfect state in which these elements now are, and 
the disorder and discord which exist on the earth. Second, that the 


174 


APPENDIX. 


reign of Evil on earth takes place during the Social Infancy of Hu¬ 
manity, and is an unavoidable consequence of it, and that the reign 
of Good will follow it, and continue during the long ages of the hill 
social development, or the social adolescence of the human race. The 
Cause of Evil — a subject which has completely bewildered human 
reason, and given rise to so many erroneous theories, both theological 
and philosophical — is now easily explained; it is to be found in the 
simple fact of the immaturity of the Social World —or of the social 
infancy of Humanity. 

To sum up, we repeat that Humanity is in the beginning of its 
social career on earth; the Social World is in its infancy ; the Evils 
which exist on the earth, such as poverty, ignorance, war, oppression,' 
fraud, conflict of interests, incoherent action, etc., are attendant upon 
that infancy ; they are effects of growth and development. 

The extent and intensity of social evils have so violated the 
intuitive sentiment of order and harmony in the human mind’, that 
men have thought the earth was accursed, that the human race had 
committed some great error, and was now expiating it, that a demoniac 
power governed the universe jointly with the power of good. The 
few thousand years of the past appear to minds, which do not 
know that Humanity goes through a long social career, so vast that 
they are lost in the contemplation; they believe in consequence that 
what is, is the normal state of Humanity, that the future will be the 
continuation of the past and present, and that the reign of evil is to 
be eternal on our globe. These views form the basis of the leading 
theologies of the world ; hence the doctrines of a fall, an expiation, a 
redemption, of demons, of hells, etc. These doctrines exercise, it is 
true, but little practical influence at the present day, but they mislead 
theoretically the human mind, and turn it away from seeking the true 
solution of the cause of Evil. When the explanation we have given 
comes to be understood, men will look forward with hope to the 
future ; they will see that evil is not permanent and irremediable ; 
that it depends on circumstances which are within their control, and 
that the social redemption of Humanity — its redemption from the suf¬ 
ferings it now endures — is possible ; the plan of God as regards the 
Future and human Destiny will then be unfolded; a profound enthu¬ 
siasm will inspire men’s souls, and a mighty movement for the eleva¬ 
tion of the Race — a repetition of the crusades on a vast scale — will 
be inaugurated. 


APPENDIX. 


175 


There is one more point which we must touch upon in order not 
to leave our subject too incomplete. We believe that Evil — that is, 
poverty, ignorance, social discord, etc. — exists to a greater or less 
extent on all globes during the early phase of their social career, but 
we believe that on some globes the crisis of social development may 
be more difficult, and attended with more suffering than on others, and 
that as a consequence the Evil may be greater. The reason of this, 
we hold, is that no absolute uniformity, no mode, prescribed with math¬ 
ematical exactness, exists in the growth and development of finite 
beings; certain variations may and do take place; certain delays and 
accidents are liable to occur; we see this illustrated in all the finite 
creations around us, and what is true of them is true of globes; the 
infinitely great is governed by the same laws as the infinitely small. 
We will explain this by a familiar example : we see that, of the fruit 
on the same tree, some ripen faster than others, some may even be¬ 
come mildewed or blighted, and fail to attain to maturity; among the 
trees of a forest, some grow up crooked or stunted, and among ani¬ 
mals the same derangements and accidents in development take place; 
among children, some suffer more in the process of dentition than 
others, or are more liable to the various diseases of infancy. Now 
this law of variation, of perturbation in development applies, we 
hold, to planets as to lesser creations, although the higher the creation 
in the scale of being, the more regular and stable is its development, 
and the less its exposure to derangements and accidents in its career. 
Still with planets the law holds good, and the early stages of the 
development of some may be attended with more difficulty, and accom¬ 
panied by more suffering than what is common to the majority. 
With these preliminary remarks, we will state the question which we 
wish to ask; it is this: Has the career of the Human Race on our 
globe been, up to the present time, perfectly regular and natural, free 
from any perturbation, unnecessary delay or unusual suffering? Has 
the passage through the transitional phase of early development been 
attended with no more difficulty than is unavoidable in the nature of 
things; in other words, has the social progress of our Race not been 
slower and subject to a greater degree of evil than is usual in the first 
phases of planetary life? Have all the sufferings through which Hu¬ 
manity has passed —the wars, the oppression, the poverty, the strife, 
etc. — been absolutely necessary to the creation of the elements of 
society and to human progress ? 


176 


APPENDIX. 


These questions are, we feel, in the present state of our knowledge, 
purely speculative, but they must be answered, if we would under¬ 
stand in full the question of Evil, and the real character of the past 
career of the Race on the planet. 

Without entering into explanations, we will state briefly that from 
various considerations we are led to believe that the social infancy of 
Humanity, that is, the early phase of its social development, has been 
a slow, difficult and disordered one. Without undertaking to offer a 
solution of the problem, we conjecture that the human race has had 
some unusual obstacles to contend with in Nature or in the condition of 
the surface of the globe, which have thrown difficulties in the way of 
its social development. These may be the existence of deserts, marshes, 
arid steppes and dense forests, in the place of fertile prairies, ready 
for pasturage and tillage ; of floods, inundations, volcanoes and earth¬ 
quakes ; of climatic excesses ; of the prevalence of beasts of prey, 
which early led man, from the necessity of combatting them, to devise 
the arts of destruction. Unfavorable physical circumstances of this 
kind rendered the prosecution of Industry at the outset very difficult, 
arid inspired men with a strong dislike for labor; they laid the found¬ 
ation of the two fundamental evils which have existed on the earth — 
Rover t y and Slavery; they have perverted and degraded the spiritual 
nature of man, and thwarted and delayed his social development and 
progress. 

But, it will be asked: Why was such a state of things permitted 
to exist on the planet ? why sterile regions ? why the prevalence of 
beasts of prey, of noxious reptiles, and of vermin ? why floods, earth¬ 
quakes, volcanoes and climatic excesses ? why these and other physical 
evils? 

We have stated that diversity and derangement exist in the devel¬ 
opment of all finite creatures, that the- growth of some is slower, more 
difficult, and attended with a greater degree of imperfection and dis¬ 
order than that of others. This is not an explanation, but it is a fact , 
as is proved by Nature in all her creations, and is an answer to a cer¬ 
tain extent. 

Were we to seek for an explanation, we should conjecture : 

First: that there exists in the universe a series of intelligent 
creative beings, commencing with the intelligent races on the surfaces 
of planets, and ascending through a vast hierarchy of creative minds, 
culminating in the supreme pivot of creation or God. These 


APPENDIX. 


ITT 


Powers create eacli in its sphere; man, for example, creates in indus¬ 
try and art, operating on organic matter; he creates machinery, edi¬ 
fices, etc.; the animal and vegetable creations on the earth are the 
work ot some higher Power, which operates, we surmise, on the impond¬ 
erable fluids; the planets are the work of some higher creative Power 
still, and lastly, the supreme Pivot creates the primary suns, or the 
germs of the great stellar systems. These creative intelligences are 
liable like man — although in a degree which diminishes in proportion 
to their rank in the Series — to produce imperfect creations; Man, for 
example, may produce an imperfect steam-engine or an imperfect 
watch, and the higher creative beings may, in like manner, produce 
imperfectly in their spheres. As we do not believe that the creations 
on the surfaces of planets, or even the planets themselves are produced 
directly by the supreme Pivot, we see the possibility of imperfection 
in those departments of creation where men suppose perfection must 
necessarily exist, as they attribute all creation directly to God. 

Second : Matter, the inert passive principle, offers a certain degree 
of resistance to the active creative principle ; the latter, in moulding 
and fashioning it, does not exercise an absolute control over it; that * 
is to say, the active principle cannot mould and fashion matter instan¬ 
taneously ) it cannot bring unorganized matter into a state of organi¬ 
zation at once , or without any interval elapsing between the commence¬ 
ment and the completion of a creation. Nature, which manifests in 
her creations the laws of supreme Wisdom, offers in all her operations 
an illustration of this; it takes, as we see, some three months for the 
peach or the apple to ripen, that is, to go through the process of 
formation from the bud to the perfected fruit; that it takes three 
weeks to hatch the chick in the egg, and nine months to form a hu¬ 
man being; the formative phase occupies these periods of time. Now, 
during this process of formation, the created thing, not having attained 
to a state of full development. w r hich is for it a state of perfection, 
must necessarily be in an incomplete and imperfect state. The green 
fruit, for example, is sour, bitter or acrid ; it has attributes w hich are 
the opposite of those of the ripened fruit, and for the reason that it is 
in an opposite condition; the human being, in the phase of embry¬ 
onic development, is an unshapen, even a hideous thing, while the 
fully and harmoniously developed being is most symmetrical in propor¬ 
tion and beautiful in foim. 

The process of formation — that is, the transitional phase from 
8 * 


1T8 


APPENDIX. 


the germ to full development— implies then a period of incompleteness 
and imperfection. Matter, which is inert and passive, cannot be 
brought at once, we repeat, into new combinations and organizations.; 
a certain 'period of time must elapse between the commencement 
and the completion of a creation; this period is one of imperfec¬ 
tion, often of disorder and suffering; it is a temporary transitional 
phase, which is accompanied by the various forms of what is called 
Evil. 

The intelligent Races on all globes must, like Humanity on earth, 
pass through the transitional phase of social development before they 
can attain to their destiny. This law is universal; it is a condition 
of finite existence; the finite being must have a beginning, and the 
beginning must be different from the state of full development; if the 
one is a condition of relative perfection, the other must be a condition 
of relative imperfection. 

The question we have asked is : Has our globe suffered more in 
passing through this phase than globes in general, and if so, from 
what cause ? We believe that it has, and we have pointed out briefly 
, the reasons for such belief. We will not pursue the subject further, as 
we have not space; we have merely raised these questions to call the 
attention of the reader to the extent and depth of the problem of 
Evil. With the indication we have given, he can pursue the investiga¬ 
tion, if it interests him. We will now return to the subject of the 
three Unities. 

The Destiny of Humanity, as we have stated, is to elevate itself 
to Universal Unity, which, expressed in the simplest manner, is 
the 

Unity of Humanity with Nature. 

Unity of Humanity with itself. 

Unity of Humanity with the Universe. 

Pivot: Unity of Humanity with God. 

We will now proceed to give a more complete and methodical 
analysis of the three Unities, taking as guide a table of Fourier. 
According to this table, Universal Unity is composed of three primary 
Unities, each divided into two branches, one internal, representing the 
spiritual aspect of the subject, the other external, representing the 
material aspect. 


APPENDIX. 


179 


TABLE OF THE THREE UNITIES AND THEIR SIX BRANCHES. 

I.— UNITY OF HUMANITY WITH ITSELF. 

1. Internal Unity of Humanity with itself ; first, by the accord and 
harmony of the Passions — the motor-forces of the soul — with each 
other in the same individual; and, second, by the reign of unity and 
harmony in the social relations of human lieings. 

This compound Unity can only be attained by the establishment 
of a .true Social Order, which will secure, on the one hand, the com¬ 
plete and harmonious development of the individual man; and on the 
other, the unity of the individual with his Race, and the reign of 
concord in the social world. 

2. External Unity of Humanity with itself; first, by the unity of 
the soul with the body, which implies health, longeyity, physical 

■Jjeauty and dexterity ; and, second, through the medium of the body 
and its senses with the external world or Nature. This Unity can 
only be attained by the complete physical development of man, so as 
to render the body a perfect instrument of the soul; and by the com¬ 
plete and harmonious cultivation of the globe — by the creation of 
order and beauty in Nature, so that Humanity may live in a material 
world, perfectly adapted to its varied requirements. Nature, with her 
creations, her atmosphere, climate and electric system, is, so to say, 
the great external body of Humanity; and unless material unity reigns 
in the one, spiritual or social unity cannot reign in the other. The 
disorders and excesses which reign in Nature, and which we briefly 
described, necessarily derange and thwart the social life of Man; they 
harass, degrade and brutalize him by the innumerable obstacles which 
they oppose to his industrial labors and enterprises, and by the phy¬ 
sical sufferings which they entail upon him. 

II. — UNITY OF HUMANITY WITH GOD. 

1. Internal Unity of Humanity with God, by the free and full devel¬ 
opment of Passional Attraction ; that is, by the spontaneous and nor¬ 
mal action of those. inotor-Forces, called passions, sentiments, affec¬ 
tions, etc., which he has implanted in Man to impel and direct him to 
fulfill his destiny on earth. As the passions came from God; as he 
has given them to man as motor and guide, it follows that man, to bo 


180 


APPENDIX. 


in unity with God, must follow and obey them, for they are the Di¬ 
vine impulse, the interpreter to him of the Divine will and the Divine 
designs. 

2. External Unity of Humanity with God, by the immortality of 
the Soul: Man, as a link in the great chain of intelligent beings, hav¬ 
ing a function to perform on earth — that of overseer — which requires 
independent action and the exercise of independent reason, is a coop¬ 
erator with God, to the extent of his action and the sphere of his 
labors, in maintaining the order and harmony of the universe ; it is this 
character of independent co-worker — requiring a complete scale of the 
faculties, an integral soul — which secures him the prerogative of 
Immortality. By discovering the true theory of immortality or of 
universal life, and in fulfilling his Destiny on earth, man acquires a 
positive knowledge and sentiment of his continued existence, of which 
he has in our incoherent societies but a confused instinct, a vague 
presentiment; The instinct, however, is time, as is proved by the law 
that the Attractions of all beings are proportional to their Destinies * 

III. — UNITY OP HUMANITY WITH THE UNIVERSE. 

1. Internal Unity of Humanity with the Universe, by the Analogy 
or Correspondence which exists between the ideas and sentiments in 
the human mind, and the creations in the material world. Mind, the 
active creative principle, moulds and fashions matter, the passive prin¬ 
ciple, and stamps upon it the impress of its own image ; the created 
thing is the emblem of the creative cause ; hence analogy between 
the two. We will explain this more fully further on. 

2. External Unity of Humanity with the Universe by the influence 


* This is one of the laws which Fourier lays down in support of the problem 
of immortality. 

Attractions arc proportional to Destinies ; God, in distributing attractions to all 
his creatures establishes an equation between them and the mode of life, the func¬ 
tion, the destiny of the creature. The reindeer, for example, is destined to live 
amid the snows and the ices of the arctic regions; God does not give it Attraction 
for the verdant fields and the products of the temperate zone ; this quadruped pre¬ 
fers the snows of the North and the mosses which they cover; its Attraction then is 
proportional to its Destiny. The camel, on the other hand, is destined to live amid 
the sandy wastes of the torrid zone; its attraction — as its entire physical organiza¬ 
tion — is adapted to the mode of life ordained for it; equation again exists between 
Attraction aud Destiny. 



APPENDIX. 


181 


which a universal and scientific cultivation of the surface of the globe, 
and a perfect development of the vegetable kingdom, exercise on its 
magnetic system, and through this system on the planets with which it 
is associated. 


The first four Unities will be easily understood, and require no 
explanation ; the last two relate to abstruse subjects, and are entirely 
out of the track of ordinary thought; we will enter into a brief 
explanation of them, but without regard to any methodical analysis. 

The Universe, according to Fourier, is composed of three eternal 


and coexisting Principles :' 

The Active creative Principle, Mind. God. 

The Passive Principle, acted upon .. Matter. 


The Regulative Principle, mathematics. Laws. 

The active Principle, in moulding and fashioning matter, the pass¬ 
ive Principle, stamps upon it the impress of its attributes, of its image; 
the created thing is the emblem of these attributes; that is, of the 
idea or sentiment in the creative mind that caused it to be called into 
existence. There is necessarily a relation and a similitude — that is, 
an analogy — between the two. We will explain this by an illustra¬ 
tion taken from the works of man; in this sphere, it will be easily 
understood. 

Man, for example, in creating any object, must necessarily do so 
from a motive, that is, from a desire or an idea; the idea precedes 
the act; it gives rise to the creation, and is as a consequence im¬ 
pressed upon the thing created ; the latter must be a symbol of the 
former, and in analogy with it, for it expresses the idea which formed 
and fashioned it. In creating a sword, for example, man is impelled 
by the idea of destruction ; he stamps this idea upon the thing he 
creates, and the sword in its form and its other attributes must express 
and correspond to the purpose, that is, the idea for which it was cre¬ 
ated. The sword then is an emblem of the idea of destruction, and 
is in analogy with it. In like manner, all the works of man are anal¬ 
ogies of the mental causes — ideas or sentiments — which prompt him 
to create them ; a chair is the emblem of repose; a house of shelter. 
Ideas necessarily precede acts, and the created things are analogies of 
the ideas that gave them birth. 

Ascending from Man to higher creative Powers, and following the 





182 


APPENDIX. 


game law of relation between ideas and creations, we may affirm that 
all the creations in the material universe are emblems of ideas in some 
creative Mind, and hence that a system of Universal Analogy exists. 

If the human mind is made upon the model of the Divine or univer¬ 
sal mind ; if there is unity of organization between it and the higher 
creative minds, it follows that the material creations throughout the uni¬ 
verse, which are emblems of ideas in some creative mind, must also 
be emblems of ideas in the human mind. 

It is on this basis that Fourier establishes his theory of the Inter¬ 
nal Unity of Man with the Universe — or Analogy between the ideas 
and sentiments in the human soul and the material creations in Na¬ 
ture. 

The state of development of our globe, and the character of the 
flora and fauna upon it, are in unity with the spiritual development 
of Humanity ; a parallel runs between the two. As a consequence, 
there exists an analogy between the animal, vegetable and min¬ 
eral creations on the planet, and the spiritual or passional state, of 
Humanity. If we find, for example, developed very widely in the 
mind of the Race ideas of ferocity, calumny, treachery and cunning, 
we find as a parallel in Nature the tiger, the viper, the hyena and the 
fox. The good and generous sentiments of the soul find, in like man¬ 
ner, their analogies in the good and useful creations ; the orange and 
the rose, the dove and the antelope are emblems of corresponding 
ideas of delicacy and beauty. Thus analogy runs between the two 
worlds — the world of causes and the world of effects — between ideas 
and material creations. 

External Unity of Man with the Universe. According to Fourier’s 
conception, the planets communicate with each other by means of elec¬ 
tric or magnetic currents, and their great physical operations, such as 
their revolutions, and the creations of the flora and fauna on their sur¬ 
faces, are effected by the agency of the imponderable fluids ; these are 
in fact the life, and the source of movement of the material universe. 
The imponderable fluids, some of which are known under the names 
of light, heat, electricity, magnetism and galvanism, constitute, accord¬ 
ing to Fourier, a kingdom by themselves, which he calls the Aromal 
Kingdom. Every globe elaborates and evolves a certain quantity of 
these Aromas or imponderable fluids ; each is, so to say, an electric 
or aromal battery, and performs its aromal functions in the system to 
which it belongs, furnishing its portion of imponderables, elaborated 


APPENDIX. 


1S3 


through its vegetable system, and impregnated with its special char¬ 
acter. 

Now, the proper elaboration by a globe of its aromal forces, and a 
proper fulfillment, as a consequence, of its aromal functions in the uni¬ 
verse, depend to a very important extent on a general and perfect 
cultivation of its surface, and the full development of the vegetable 
kingdom upon it — the latter performing an important function in the 
elaboration of its aromas. 

Humanity, the Overseer of the globe, is the agent that effects this 
cultivation and the development of the kingdoms upon it; in fulfilling 
this function, it takes a part in the sidereal operations of the uni¬ 
verse ; it operates on the globe, and its aromal forces, and through 
these, on the planetary system in general. In this way is Humanity 
associated with the operations of the material universe, and performs 
a part in the regulation of its stupendous movements and harmonies; 
this constitutes its external or material Unity with the Universe ; and 
in fulfilling properly its function of overseer, it elevates itself to unity 
with it. If this hypothesis of Fourier in relation to the influence of 
Man on his planet be correct, what a noble destiny has God assigned 
to Humanity in delegating to it the execution of a work, which en¬ 
ables it to cooperate in establishing and maintaining the reign of uni¬ 
versal harmony in creation. 

Humanity, being still in the early phase of its social career, and 
not having perfected its social organization, does not as yet fulfill its 
function of overseer of its globe; this is abundantly proved by the 
existence upon its surface of vast deserts, of immense swamps, marshes 
and morasses, of jungles, of wild and extensive forests, of beasts of prey 
and noxious reptiles, of excesses in climate, and derangements of the 
atmospheric system, and by the prevalence of other material disorders, 
which are the effects of the rude and uncultivated condition of the 
earth. 

As the globe has not been brought under a system of integral and 
scientific cultivation, its surface and the kingdoms of Nature upon it 
are in.that imperfect state which is characteristic of creations in their 
primitive condition. The globe, in its present state, is to the globe as 
it will be in future, when harmonized by the labors and genius of 
Humanity, what the wild fruit is to the grafted and perfected fruit — 
what the crab-apple, for example, is to the pippin. 


184 


APPENDIX. 


Let us take a general survey of the earth’s surface, and consider 
fjr a moment its present condition. 

Vast Deserts cover the finest tropical regions, ruining them for all 
purposes of human life and industry, and exercising a pernicious influ¬ 
ence upon the general economy of the planet; they viciate, for exam¬ 
ple, the atmospheric system and derange the climate — a fact not 
determined by men of science, although so many indications of it 
exist. We will indicate briefly how the latter effect is prodnced. The 
great Desert of Sahara is some three thousand miles long by eight 
hundred broad in its wider parts; it presents as a consequence to the 
rays of a tropical sun a vast waste of heated sand, which becomes a fur¬ 
nace at the central regions of the globe; no forests, no verdure or streams 
temper the unnatural heat which is generated, and which rises habitually 
to 160° Farenheit. This heat causes vast masses of rarified air to rise in 
vortices, as Humboldt speaks of the phenomenon, which must be replaced 
by colder masses; these latter rush in from thq temperate and polar 
regions, and the sudden displacement of vast atmospheric columns 
produces great perturbations in the atmospheric system, giving rise to 
storms, hurricanes, sudden and violent fluctuations of temperature, and 
as collateral effects, to prolonged drouths, or excessive rains and floods, 
long heated terms, late and early frosts, and other disorders. These 
derangements are increased by the uncultivated state of the Northern 
regions; the forests preserve the snows on the surface till late in the 
season, and the swamps the chilled waters ; an unnatural degree of 
cold is thus generated in the Arctic regions, as an unnatural degree 
of heat is generated at the Equator. These two false influences, coop¬ 
erating in their pernicious action, derange to a serious extent the cli¬ 
mate of our globe, rendering it a succession of extremes and excesses, 
prejudicial both to vegetable and animal life; the warm and relax¬ 
ing wind of one day, or of a part of a day, is succeeded the next 
by cold and penetrating blasts, which, besides their baneful action on 
Nature in general, entail on Man colds, consumption, rheumatism and 
other diseases. 

The great deserts of Africa and Asia were not of original .forma¬ 
tion, or, at least, did not exist in their present extent; they were 
probably small sandy districts, which, owing to lack of cultivation or 
bad cultivation on their borders, gradually spread until they attained 
their present colossal dimensions, and have become truly plague spots 
upon the surface of the globe. 


APPENDIX. 


185 


Besides the Deserts, vast marshes, morasses, jungles and collections 
of stagnant waters exist everywhere over the earth ; they generate by 
their miasmatic exhalations various epidemic diseases — the most prom¬ 
inent of which are the plague, the cholera and the yellow'-fever. The 
cholera, for example — a telluric disease — was generated on the neg¬ 
lected or viciated soil of India; it has swept over every continent, 
carrying death to the furthest extremities of the earth, even to distant 
Patagonia, and punishing the entire human race for the neglect of its 
function of Overseer. In addition to the deserts and marshes, savage 
wildernesses and steppes, and regions desolated by fire and sword 
also exist, and disfigure the earth’s surface, adding to the physical dis¬ 
order that reigns upon it. 

In the animal and vegetable kingdoms, we find to some extent an 
analogous state of things ; beasts of prey, noxious reptiles, pestilent 
insects, loathsome vermin, and useless and poisonous weeds abound, 
warring on Man, and opposing serious obstacles to his Industry. 

Can these disorders in Nature be corrected ? This is the question 
which interests most directly Humanity. In the future, when the 
human mind shall be sufficiently expanded and elevated to occupy 
itself w r ith problems of a universal character and interest, it will con¬ 
sider the subject seriously. From a careful study of it, we believe 
that these great disorders, even the most gigantic, can be corrected ; 
the great deserts themselves, which would seem to present the greatest 
obstacles to human Industry, could be reclaimed and fertilized. Let a 
true Order of Society, let Universal Association be inaugurated ; let 
the genius, science and other resources of the human race be directed 
to Industry with its beneficent works of creation ; let Industry be 
organized, and through a proper organization, be dignified and rendered 
Attractive; let the idea of reclaiming Nature from the reign of dis¬ 
cord inspire the human mind — inspire it with the idea of the grand¬ 
eur, and even the sacred character of the work, and it can be accom¬ 
plished. 

Without pursuing the subject further in detail, we will consider it 
from a general point of view. 

Our globe, like all the globes of the Universe, requires upon its 
surface an Overseer, that is, an intelligent and thinking race, a creative 
and organizing race, whose function it is to cultivate and embellish it, to 
develop and perfect the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and to establish 
order and harmony in the‘domain ol Nature. Man is this Overseer 


186 


APPENDIX. 


on our globe ; on him devolve the care and supervision of its surface, 
and of its fauna and flora. He finds it in a rude and savage state; 
it is covered with wild forests and prairies; its streams are tortuous 
and unregulated in their courses ; over it are scattered waste and des¬ 
ert places; and its animal and vegetable creations are in an undevel¬ 
oped condition. He must elevate it from this primitive and imperfect 
state; he must cultivate it, develop and perfect its various depart¬ 
ments, and establish upon it the reign of material harmony. This 
great work he cannot, of course, execute in his social infancy; he 
must first elaborate and perfect the elements of Society, especially 
industry and the sciences, and then progress sufficiently in his own 
development, to organize a true social order. When this is accom¬ 
plished, he can, by directing his collective labors and his genius to the 
function of industrial Overseer, fulfill it. In executing this great 

function, he fulfills his industrial Destiny; he enters into unity with 

his planet, and through it, with the material universe to which it be¬ 
longs. 

As a globe, that has not been improved and harmonized by the 
Industry of its inhabitants, is in an imperfect and discordant condition, 
we draw the conclusion that the physical imperfections and disorders 
that now exist upon our planet are unnatural and temporary, and that 
they will disappear before the labors of associated Humanity ; they are 
evils which affect, to a greater or lesser extent, all globes during the 

early stages of their career, before the intelligent Races upon them 

have discovered and perfected the industrial and other means neces¬ 
sary to accomplish the work of cultivating and improving them. 

We will now close by summing up briefly the primary branches of 
human Destiny. 

Humanity has three great functions to perform on earth, or a three¬ 
fold Destiny to fulfill. 

First, it has an industrial Destiny; it is the one of which we 
have just spoken in detail; it comprises the second and sixth Unities 
of the table. 

Second, it has a social Destiny to fulfill; it must establish the 
reign of social unity and harmony on earth, analogous to the material 
unity and harmony which we have described ; to do this, it must in 
the first place develop and perfect its own nature ; it must call out 
and develop in equilibrium and in their higher degrees all the senti¬ 
ments and faculties of the soul, so as to produce a balanced and har- 


APPENDIX. 


187 


monions action of its motor-forces j and in the second place, it must 
discover and establish true social institutions which will harmonize the 
political, industrial and social relations of its members. This branch 
of Destiny comprises the first and third Unities of the Table. 

Third, it has an Intellectual Destiny to fulfill; it is the Organ¬ 
izer on the planet, the Regulator and Harmonist of the kingdoms of 
Nature, and of all terrestrial elements and phenomena of a mutable 
character; it must bring Nature with these elements into Unity with 
the general Order of creation ; to do this, it must discover the Laws 
of Universal Harmony — the Laws according to which the Universe is 
governed, and employ them in its regulative and organizing work. 
Having so great and complex a function to perform, Humanity must 
have, as guide, fixed Principles, which are universal in their applica¬ 
tion— that is, those Laws of order and harmony in creation, which 
emanate from the Supreme Reason of the universe. It cannot, like the 
animal, follow instinct, as instinct can only serve as guide in an ex¬ 
tremely limited sphere of action ; it cannot follow the laws and 
theories which its own finite reason may devise and set up, for they 
are, as experience proves, imperfect, limited and arbitrary; it can only 
follow the law's of the Supreme Organizer, which are universal in 
their application, and the basis of all system, order and organization 
in creation. A few of these law r s have been discovered by men of 
genius, like Kepler and Newdon ; human reason must discover their 
entire system, so that Humanity can apply them in the great intellect¬ 
ual or scientific work of organization which devolves upon it. Their 
discovery is the especial task of reason, its highest achievement; in 
making it, the finite reason of Humanity will elevate itself to Unity 
with the Divine reason, and secure the inestimable boon of being 
guided by it In applying these laws to the organization of Society, 
it will bring the terrestrial life of Humanity into unity with the gen¬ 
eral Order of creation and its harmonies, and realize upon earth that 
grand and divine Ideal, the possibility of attaining which has been the 
instinctive belief and aspiration of the great unitary or religious souls 
of our Race. At the same time, the fourth and fifth Unities of the 
Table w r ill be explained. 

Such are the great works which Humanity must accomplish in the 
future; such the mission or destiny wdiich it must fulfill on the earth. 

An instinct or intuitive sentiment of this Destiny has pervaded the 
higher Religions of Humanity. In the Jewish religion, we find the 




188 


APPENDIX. 


idea expressed in the belief in the Millenium, or the reign of peace, 
justice and righteousness on earth. We find it in the prophetic visions 
of Isaiah, who saw the wilderness reclaimed, the deserts blooming, the 
sword and the spear beaten into the ploughshare and the pruning- 
hook, and the reign of wrong and violence brought to a close. In 
the New Testament, the idea is presented as the advent of the king¬ 
dom of God, the reign of heaven on earth, when Humanity shall do 
the will of God on this terrestrial scene of action, as it is done in 
heaven. These grand intuitions of Religion are looked upon by the 
practical reason or the practical judgment of mankind — which takes 
as its criterion of certainty the positive experience of the past — as 
visionary illusions; even religious minds have no faith in them, and 
explain them allegorically. Now we believe that they have a real 
basis of truth, and that they can be shown to rest on such a basis by 
a scientific explanation of human Destiny. 

We bave spoken exclusively of Man’s terrestrial Destiny; we have 
not spoken of any future destiny—of life in another world 5 it is not, 
however, to be inferred from this that we deny such a destiny. Our 
faith is — although we have no scientific demonstration sufficient to 
render it positive knowledge — that the soul is immortal, and that Man 
continues his career hereafter. Our faith also is that the character of 
his life here influences to a certain extent his spiritual nature in future 
spheres of existence; that is to say, we believe that the spiritual 
principle in him is perfected by elevating, ennobling and harmonious 
experiences in thought and sentiment in this existence, and in all 
others. The Soul rises from grade to grade in the vast series or hier¬ 
archy of spirits in proportion as it is developed — we might say, 
educated and perfected — by the experience and exercise of har¬ 
monies in the successive stages of being through which it passes. On 
globes where social harmony reigns, the soul gains and advances; its 
spiritual or passional forces are normally exercised and are perfected. 
On globes where social incoherence and discord exist, there is a halt; 
the soul does not progress. We make these remarks, not to explain a 
mystery upon which science has as yet shed no light, but to meet the 
objections of those who, from religious zeal or ignorance, may declare 
that a theory of terrestrial Destiny, however grand it may be, is 
worthless, as it leaves out of sight the infinite Future, which is alone 
worthy of serious consideration. 

In connection with this subject, we will present very briefly the 


APPENDIX. 1S9 

spiritual — we might perhaps say, the Religious — aspect of the prob¬ 
lem of Human Destiny. 

The active Principle in Man — called the Spirit, Soul, Mind — is 
the Divine Principle, on earth, an emanation or influx from the uni¬ 
versal Spirit or Gcd, and endowed with its attributes; it performs 
the same function on earth that Spirit performs in the universality of 
creation ; it is incorporated in a material body in order that it may be 
placed in relation with the material world, enabled to act upon it, 
and fulfill its function of Overseer on the planet. 

Thus Humanity, or the collective Soul inhabiting this globe, is the 
incarnation of the Divine Principle upon it; it is the thinking and 
regulative power on the planet, the Reason and Providence of Nature, 
distributing, coordinating and systemizing her creations, forces and ele¬ 
ments, and establishing in her domain the reign of Divine Order, 
which it does by discovering and applying those Laws of Harmony, 
which emanate from divine Wisdom, and according to which the uni¬ 
verse is governed. It performs in the limited field of its action the 
same function — however abridged — which the Deity exercises in the 
universe; namely, the creation of material and spiritual Harmony on 
the planet, or the creation of Harmony in Nature, and in itself— 
called, in religious language, the kingdom of God, the reign of Heaven 
on earth. 

The creation of this material and spiritual harmony has been suffi¬ 
ciently explained in the preceding pages; we will merely refer to it 
in the present connection. 

The surface of the earth, with the creations upon it, come from the 
hand of Nature in a wild, rude and imperfect state ; they possess the 
capacity of harmony, but they are left unharmonized. Here begins 
the function of Humanity ; it must continue the work of the creative 
mind; it must develop, perfect, regulate and harmonize the material 
world, and elevate it to unity with the general Order of creation. 

Like Nature, Humanity begins its career in a rude and imperfect 
state ; in the early phases of its social existence, it is in a savage or 
barbarous condition ; the lower and selfish instincts are alone devel¬ 
oped ; its intellect is darkened by ignorance ; its senses are coarse and 
are wholly predominant. Humanity must develop and perfect its na¬ 
ture as it must the material world ; it must call out the higher senti¬ 
ments of the soul, enlighten its intellect, and reline its senses; it must 



190 


APPENDIX. 


regulate their play and action in the social mechanism, and establish 
the reign of social harmony on earth. 

To sum and state concisely the problem, we may say : 

Humanity is the Harmonist of Nature and .per kingdoms. 

Humanity is the Harmonist of itself and the social world. 

It must elevate Nature and itself from a primitive state of imper¬ 
fection and disorder — which state still continues — to unity with the 
general plan of Order and Harmony that reigns in creation wherever 
the laws of God are in operation and govern ; that is, in all worlds 
where the active principle, or Spirit, has brought the passive principle, 
or Matter, under subjection and harmonized it. 

The elevation of Nature to Unity, and the creation of Social Har¬ 
mony on earth, are two vast enterprises, requiring the creation of great 
collateral instrumentalities. 

To elevate Nature, Humanity must, as we have explained, create 
and organize a perfect system of Industry, discover and perfect the 
physical sciences, and establish, on a peaceful and industrial basis, an 
order of Society that will direct its labors to the work of terrestrial 
cultivation and improvement. 

To elevate itself, Humanity must create the Fine Arts — the instru¬ 
mentality for refining the Senses; discover the Sciences, which enlighten 
the Intellect; and establish a system of political and social Institu¬ 
tions, perfectly adapted to human nature, which will regulate the play 
and action of the Social Passions, and thus lead to social Harmony, 
which is the external effect of a normal and harmonious action of these 
forces of the Soul. 

When Humanity shall have accomplished these great works, and 
established by its genius the reign of material and spiritual harmony 
on earth, it will then comprehend its place and destiny in creation, 
and arrive at a clear consciousness that it is a member of the inlinite 
federation of Spirits, which are everywhere cooperating with, and car¬ 
rying out. the plans of the Supreme Harmonist of the Universe. 


NOTE II. 


SEE TABLE OP THE CHARACTERISTICS OP COMMERCE, PAGE 105. 

We will explain briefly in this note a few of the characteristics 
of the Table, in which Fourier presents, without comment, the leading 
features of the Commercial system of Civilization. 

Inverse Pivot : Intermediate Property. By this character¬ 
istic Fourier designates the right which the merchant possesses 
of becoming the owner of products which he has not produced , and 
which he does not intend to consume. This right gives him the abso¬ 
lute control of products which pass through his hands, and the 
power to do what he pleases with them; to adulterate them; to with¬ 
draw them from circulation ; to hoard them and raise prices; to put 
arbitrary valuations upon them; to monopolize them and ereate artifi¬ 
cial scarcities ; to refuse to purchase, and depress prices; to deceive 
as to quality by false brands, trade-marks, etc., and to practice, gen¬ 
erally, fraud and extortion in innumerable ways under the cover of 
the “right of property.” 

As Intermediate Property opens the door to so many of the abuses 
and frauds of Commerce, Fourier ranks it as one of the pivots of the 
system. 

Under a true organization of Commerce, the right of Intermediate 
Property would be abolished; the commercial or exchanging classes 
would become commission merchants, acting as the agents of product¬ 
ive Industry, and under its direction, paid a fixed salary or commis¬ 
sion, and responsible for their acts. Commerce would then become 
what it should be, the servant of productive Industry, instead of its 
master, as it now is. 

The direct Pivot, which is the Sacrifice of the collective to the 
individual interest, will be easily understood ; we give a single 


192 


APPENDIX. 


illustration of it: A league of monopolists in bread-stuffs may by 
their operations create an artificial scarcity, and so raise prices as to 
place bread almost beyond the reach of the poorer classes — producing, 
so to say, a fictitious* famine ; in seasons of scarcity such leagues are 
very common. It is evident that the Collective Interest is here sacri¬ 
ficed to the Individual, that is, the people are made to pay high prices 
for bread to enrich a few monopolists. We have given an illustration 
on a large scale ; if we examine attentively the workings of the com¬ 
mercial system, we shall see that in all departments and details of 
production and consumption, the interests of the public are sacrificed 
to those of a small minority of merchants. 

1. Duplicity of Action. There exists an entire absence of con¬ 
cert, combination and unity in commercial operations; the members 
of the commercial body operate at random, incoherently, ignorantly 
and individually, without a knowledge of each other’s transactions, 
or of the business wants of society, guided mainly by the desire 
of gain ; the results are foolish enterprises, wild speculations, over¬ 
trading and other disorders and excesses, which give rise period¬ 
ically to derangements, revulsions and bankruptcies. The commercial 
world is in conflict with itself by anarchical competition, and with 
productive Industry, which it spoliates; incoherence and duplicity of 
action reign throughout its entire domain. 

3. Tolerated Fraud. Commerce is permitted to commit a great 
variety of frauds, which have become legalized by custom, and are 
practiced as a kind of right, while they ought, according to a true 
standard of equity, to be punished as crimes. We will explain this by 
an example. Society punishes the obtaining of goods under false pre¬ 
tenses as a variety of swindling, that is, as a crime : but it takes no 
notice of, and does not punish the thousand swindles of commerce; 
they are nevertheless as much swindles in principle as the one above 
cited. Take the adulteration of products as an example; it is a means 
of obtaining the money of the consumer under false pretenses, and at¬ 
tacks, in addition to the purse, his health. The sale of products under 
false brands and trade-marks, which are means of deceiving as to 
quality, are in fact swindles. Commerce resorts in innumerable ways 
to such false pretenses to increase its profits, and obtain that for which 
it gives no equivalent. Fraud, we may truly say, has become legal¬ 
ized, and is tolerated by public opinion in the commercial operations 
of Civilization. 


APPENDIX. 


193 


5. Withdrawal of Capital from Agriculture. Commerce 
controls the capital and the credit of the world; they are engaged 
mainly in its service. It draws capital to, and concentrates it in, the 
large cilies, where it is employed in speculation, stock-jobbing, usury, 
monopoly and other useless, parasitic or fraudulent operations. 
Capital is thus diverted from Agriculture, which so much needs it, 
and where it would render the greatest service in increasing produc¬ 
tion or the real wealth of society. While the financial resources of 
the world are thus at the service of Commerce ; while thousands of 
Banks are created to afford it monetary facilities, Agriculture is with¬ 
out resources and credit —in fact, almost destitute, possessing neither 
the tools, implements, flocks, herds, nor other means necessary to its 
successful prosecution ; it is carried on by needy and ignorant families, 
and its productiveness is reduced almost to the minimum degree. A 
subordinate and secondary function in the industrial system controls 
the wealth of society, and renders Agriculture, which is the most im¬ 
portant branch of Industry, subservient to its interests. This single 
, fact shows the falseness and incoherence that reign in the industrial 
system of Civilization. 

7. Artificial Gluts or Oversupplies. It constantly happens 
that, owing to the absence of all concert of action in commercial af¬ 
fairs, to wild speculation and the greed of gain, certain markets of the 
world are overstocked with merchandise, giving rise to what are called 
“gluts.” The consequent result is that sales become difficult or im¬ 
possible, prices fall, distrust is engendered, credit is shaken, and a 
commercial panic and revulsion follows, accompanied with bankruptcy 
and ruin. The eleventh characteristic of Commerce — Stoppage of 
Circulation — then sets in, and the crisis extends often to the whole 
industrial system. 

8. Depressive Abundance. In seasons of great productiveness, 
the supply exceeds the usual demand ; as no provision is made in our 
industrial system for storing and preserving for future use the surplus, 
the demand, in such seasons, is slack; the merchants make limited 
purchases or decline to buy altogether, either through fear of a fur¬ 
ther fall or the hope of purchasing at still lower prices. The result is 
that gales are difficult, often impossible, except at ruinous prices; and 
the producer, with his superabundance, is as badly off as if he bad a 
season of scarcity; he is in fact often ruined with what, under a 
proper industrial organization, and proper arrangements for preserving 

9 


194 


APPENDIX. 


the surplus abundance of fruitful seasons, would be to him a source 
of wealth. Thus extremes meet in our incoherent industrial system; 
excessive abundance, producing stagnation, is often as prejudicial to 
the producer as the failure of crops. 

9. Inverse Encroachment. By this term Fourier characterizes 
the tendency of Capital and Commerce, in modern times, to monopo¬ 
lize the entire wealth of society — the soil, manufactories, machinery, 
mines, means of transportation, the currency, etc. — and to organize 
what he calls a Commercial or Industrial Feudalism, that is, a vast 
system of monopoly, established and controlled by the great capitalists, 
who will be the future Lords of this new Feudalism. 

Civilization began with a Feudalism — that of the great Barons ; it 

was military in its character, founded by the power of the sword — by 

direct spoliation or encroachment The soil was monopolized by the 

military leaders; the laboring classes were made serfs, and the entire 

wealth of Society, as it then existed, was concentrated in the hands 

of the Feudal Lords. According to the law of Contact of Extremes, 

Civilization is destined to end with a Feudalism — with a commercial 

% 

or industrial Feudalism ; it will be established by the power of Capi¬ 
tal, wielded by the great capitalists, bankers, and merchants; the en¬ 
tire wealth of society will be monopolized through the profits of com¬ 
merce and banking, of speculation and usury; all branches of Industry 
will be systematized and organized, but on an arbitrary and despotic 
basis; the laboring classes will be reduced to entire dependence on 
capital, and become the industrial serfs of the new industrial dispensa¬ 
tion. 

Industry will be organized, controlled and directed by large joint- 
stock companies or Corporations; and the chiefs of the new Feudal¬ 
ism will be those who manage these Corporations, that is. the great 
capitalists. The laboring classes will work in the Corporations, de¬ 
pendent upon them for employment, subject to their laws and regula¬ 
tions, and obliged to accept such terms and conditions as they choose 
to lay down. Possessing themselves no capital, no implements of pro¬ 
duction, they must become wholly dependent on capital; a new sys¬ 
tem of discipline and servitude will thus be instituted, a new order 
established in the life and labors of the people. 

We see the commencement of this industrial Feudalism in manu¬ 
factures. Since the discovery of machinery on a large scale, and of 
steam-power, capital has organized portions of this branch of Industry ; 


APPENDIX. 


195 


as soon as agricultural machinery — the steam plough, etc. — shall he 
perfected, agriculture will be organized in the same manner, that is, by 
joint-stock companies. Commerce will also soon be monopolized ; it 
would be very easy for a company with a capital of a few millions to 
monopolize some one branch, as, for instance, the China trade. With its 
own fleets, its warehouses, and an economical organization, it could 
break down individual competitors, and secure a monopoly. 

The present phase of free competition and incoherent action is a 
transitional and temporary one, a passage from the feudal system of 
the Middle Ages to a new system of organization in the future, which 
will be a monopoly of commerce and industry by large joint-stock 
companies, that is, the Industrial Feudalism of which we have spoken. 

As the wealth of society will be absorbed and the industrial Feud¬ 
alism established in an insensible, covert and silent manner by the 
commercial power, Fourier characterizes the process as one of inverse 
Encroachment, of indirect Spoliation , thus contrasting it with the direct 
and violent Spoliation of the first Feudalism. 

As this subject will be treated further on in the extract which we 
make from one of Fourier’s works, and which follows this note, we 
leave it here. 

12. Artificial Monet. The incoherence that reigns in the indus¬ 
trial system of Civilization permits the usurpation of numerous privi¬ 
leges, and the practice of great abuses by individuals; among them we 
will mention the creation of Money. First, our banking corporations 
create money or a currency, and from this privilege they derive the 
enormous profits which interest, usury, exchange, etc., yield. To form 
an estimate of the enormous sums paid by Industry to the Banks of 
our country for the use of a currency, we have but to take into con¬ 
sideration the fact that money loaned at 7 100, and reloaned every 
three months, doubles itself in about seven years and a half. If the 
currency issued by the Banks of the country amounts to five hundred 
millions, the country pays that sum every seven and a half years for 
the use of it; add the profits of usury, and we may safely estimate 
that the people of the United States pay one hundred millions of dol¬ 
lars a year to the Banks for the use of the circulating medium which 
they furnish. They thus pay every five or six years a sv.m equal to the 
entire amount of the currency for the use of the same ; it is as if a tenant 
were to pay every five years, for the use of a house, its entire value. 
As the business of a country cannot pay so enormous a price for the 


196 


APPENDIX. 


use of its currency, the consequence is that every few years — about 
ten in the United States — a commercial revulsion takes place. When 
a certain portion of the capital engaged in business is swallowed 
up in the payment of interest, and the business men have nothing to 
show for it, no real values to represent what they have paid away, 
they cannot meet their debts ; they suspend or fail; a revulsion ensues, 
and ultimately bankruptcy settles accounts.* Besides the artificial 


*A new and a true Currency remains to be discovered — a Currency created by 
the genius of Man, and which will be to the specie currency and its representatives 
what the locomotive is to the horse. Man must create for himself, that is, by his 
Reason, the industrial and other instrumentalities, which he uses; he makes no de¬ 
cisive progress except on this condition. Nature aids him at the outset of his 
career, but only to encourage and put him on the track. She furnishes him, for 
example, as tractive power, the horse and the ox; he must create for himself the 
true tractive instrument, which is the locomotive and the railway. She furnishes him in 
like manner with a Currency — gold and silver; he must discover the true currency 
to be used in industrial exchanges, that is. in facilitating the circulation of products 
or their travel from hand to hand. We will describe briefly this Currency. It 
should be. created by the State or Nation, of the cheapest material possible — say 
of paper, like the bank bills now in use, and loaned at a rate just sufficient to 
cover the expense of management, which would be less than 1 T 100 a year. The 
principle of interest — which is an abuse, a usurpation of our monopolizable specie 
currency, controlled as it is by individuals who charge what they please for the 
use of it, calling it interest — would be abolished, and replaced by that of cost of 
creation and issue , or of management. The difficult point to determine is the secu¬ 
rity on which loans should be made, that is, the basis of Credit. From our investi¬ 
gations of the subject, we believe that the security should be the staple products 
of Industry, that is, products which are non-perishable and sure of sale ; personal 
security or endorsed notes should not be taken, as such security furnishes only an 
arbitrary basis, and opens the door to speculation, and to abuses of all kinds. 

We will indicate briefly one mode in which the new Currency might be established. 
Suppose the State of New York, for example, were to decide upon testing the expe¬ 
riment, what are the steps it would take ? It would organize a central Bank for 
the engraving, printing and registry of the bills. It would establish branch banks in 
all the principal towns; it would erect, in connection with them, storehouses for the 
reception and storage of the staple products, such as the cereal grains, the salt 
meats, the wool, cheese, etc., on which it would make loans. On this security it 
would lend to the depositor, say, the three quarters of the market value of the pro¬ 
ducts ; it would lend only on non-perishable products, certain of sale, for the reason 
that the currency must have a perfectly sound basis, so as to inspire entire confidence. 
It would charge on its loans just enough to cover the expenses of the currency and 
its management, and of storage. The products would be sold, if the owner desired, 
by the bank —in which case it would act as his factor—or he could negociate their 
sale himself; when sold, the bank would deduct the amount of the loan, and pay 
him the balance. The currency would be redeemable in products, not in specie; 
with it, the products in all the warehouses of the State could be purchased, and it 



ArrENDix. 


197 


money created by the Banks, we have Bills of Exchange, drawn and 
issued by private bankers and merchants; they circulate and perform 
the function of money. If we take into consideration the enormous 
sums, issued under this form by the great bankers of the world, and 
the interest and exchange paid upon them, we shall be astonished 
at the gigantic tax levied on productive Industry for the use of the 
credit or the good names of these potentates of finance. Governments 
also issue artificial money in the form of treasury bonds and notes; 
contrary to the custom of the banks and bankers, and to what would 
seem common sense, they pay, as a general rule, interest on their 
issues.! Another variety of artificial money are the issues of city cor¬ 
porations and private individuals, commonly called “Shinplasters 
they are put in circulation in times of financial troubles, and are one 
more element of disorder in the industrial system. These various cre¬ 
ations of currency, which are not regulated by any true standard, that 


would be received for taxes, tolls and other State dues. The specie currency 
would he supplanted and its numerous abuses abolished; the power 'which 
it gives capital and commerce to control Industry and the producing interests, 
would be taken away; the sword of capital would be broken. It Avill be asked : 
How, without specie, will foreign trade be carried on? That trade would take care 
of itself; it would result in a balanced exchange of products, or a balance of trade. 
If the new currency became general, the countries, which sold us their products, 
would have to take our currency in payment, and as with it they could only buy 
our products, it would be equivalent to taking our products for theirs, which would 
lead to a balance of trade, established in an easy and natural manner. Overtrading 
would be impossible ; protective tariffs would be unnecessary; custom-houses could 
be suppressed, and free-trade established. 

As the principle of interest would be abolished under the new currency, it 
would, as a necessary result and without the necessity of any legislative action, be 
abolished also on the notes of individuals; thus interest and usury would cease, and 
with them the power of money to reproduce itself without labor — a power which 
enables a privileged few to live in luxury and idle ease on the toil of their fellow- 
men. 

We have spoken of the staple products of Industry as the basis of credit, and as 
the only security. As experience is acquired, this basis would be widened and made 
to embrace all the legitimate business transactions of society; but as it is essen¬ 
tially necessary in the commencement of the experiment to guard against any dan¬ 
ger of bad loans and of favoritism, which would ruin it, we deem it important in 
the outset to restrict loans within the limit prescribed. 

•f The Banks pay no interest on their notes, while they charge interest on the 
notes of the public which they discount. They receive credit from the public, which 
takes and circulates their bills, and in return make the public pay interest on their 
bills, thus taken and circulated. What a singular policy is thus established, and is 
accepted by an intelligent people. 



198 


APPENDIX. 


is, by the amount of products to be exchanged, and the wants of In¬ 
dustry, and which are liable to sudden and extreme fluctuations, cause 
periodically the greatest derangements in the business world, producing 
speculation and overtrading, and their consequent results, revulsions 
and bankruptcy. A wiser generation will look back with astonishment 
at the folly of the present age, which permits a system so superficially 
absurd to exist; and which, with all its scheming in finance, has not 
discovered the true and natural currency. 

14. Fraud and vice rendered epidemic. Whenever a species 
of fraud is practiced successfully by a merchant or a class of mer¬ 
chants, it forces the others, even against their will, to follow the exam¬ 
ple on pain of losing their trade. Take, for instance, the adulteration 
of products; its successful practice by a few dealers in any one 
branch, such as wines, leads the trade generally to adopt it; it be¬ 
comes epidemic, and at length forms a part of the business; no one 
can succeed and make money rapidly who does not resort to it. 

15. Obscurantism ; by this term Fourier characterizes the tendency 
of the mind, absorbed exclusively in money-making, to neglect, under¬ 
value and even despise art, science and the higher aims of life. Com¬ 
mercial pursuits exercise a double influence upon the human mind ; 
first, they generate a mania for wealth, and absorb all the faculties in 
its acquisition ; second, they call out and exercise a low order of 
faculties, such as distrust, suspicion, timid prudence, selfishness, petty 
calculation and scheming, craft, cunning, duplicity and avarice; they 
smother the nobler, the more ardent and generous feelings of the soul, 
and thus degrade man’s spiritual nature ; such is the tendency ; a few 
exceptions here and there only confirm the general rule. With a peo¬ 
ple amid whom the commercial spirit has long been predominant, as 
is the case in Holland, for example, and the faculties which commerce 
develops have transmitted their influence from father to son for several 
generations, there is a marked mental degeneration, proving the debas¬ 
ing influence of commercial life on the nature of man. We may safely 
assert, with Fourier, tha,t the commercial spirit is a debasing and be¬ 
nighting one, making of a people with whom it has become wholly 
predominant a race of cautious and timid schemers, trafficers and mere 
money hoarders. 

We will not pursue further the explanation of the characteristics 
of the Table ; several will be treated in the extracts from Fourier’s 


APPENDIX. 


199 


work which follow, while most of the others are sufficiently clear to be 
understood. 

The extracts which we give are a running abridgment of several 
chapters on Commerce, which Fourier inserted in his first work, pub¬ 
lished in 1808. The reader will remark the foresight and sagacity 
with which Fourier traced out at that day, amid the revolutionary 
convulsions and the wars of the period, the future progress and tend¬ 
ency of the commercial power. His remarks in relation to the rise of 
an Industrial Feudalism are prophetic. At the present day, after the 
lapse of half a century, we see the movement fully inaugurated, es¬ 
pecially in England, where capital, by its accumulation, has acquired 
the greatest power. In those branches of Industry, for the prosecution 
of which machinery on an extensive scale has been discovered, joint- 
stock companies have monopolized and organized them; the reason is 
that such machinery enables capital to systematize and prosecute profit¬ 
ably the branches to which it is applied. The invention, for example, 
of the spinning-jenny and the power-loom, has thrown one great branch 
of manufactures into the hands of capital. The discovery of the rail¬ 
road has led to the monopoly by joint-stock companies of the entire 
business of travel and transportation on land. The leading branches 
of manufactures are at the present day for the most part monopolized; 
the movement will continue and extend to agriculture and commerce, 
and will gradually invade the entire Industrial system. Then a league 
and consolidation of the joint-stock companies or the industrial cor¬ 
porations, will take place, and the new regime will be fully and firmly 
established. We shall then see the middle classes — the small manu¬ 
facturers, land-owners, traders, etc. — sink into the ranks of the labor¬ 
ing classes, and become entirely dependent on the corporations which 
employ them. We shall see a new and absolute power arise, 
that of Capital, which will control the interests of Industry and the 
classes engaged in it. This power will institute the most rigid disci¬ 
pline as regards labor, and will extend its supervision even to the 
social life of the masses. System and order will be established in all 
departments of Industry, but a prosaic order, the sole object of which 
will be profit; the laboring classes will work under the direction of 
the great industrial Corporations, subject to their regulations and their 
dictation, and go through a daily round of duties like so many 
machines. Then the reign of what we may call Industrialism , or the 
exclusive predominance of the industrial and commercial policy and 


200 


APPENDIX. 


spirit, will bo established. It will be the counterpart of the policy 
and spirit of war, which were so wholly predominant under the Feudal 
System. The directors of the industrial and commercial Corporations, 
and the great capitalists or stock-holders will be the new chiefs of so¬ 
ciety, as were the Feudal Barons in their time — the first represent¬ 
ing the power of wealth ; the second that of the sword. Such accord¬ 
ing to Fourier’s views, will be the character of the last or fourth phase 
of the present social Order. It will develop Iudustry fully, systema¬ 
tize it, drill the masses thoroughly, teach them method and discipline, 
and, to a certain extent, prepare them for cooperation and association. 
This new phase of social development will form the transition to a 
higher social state, which Fourier calls Guarantism, in which Order and 
System and a universal prosecution of Industry will be combined 
with individual liberty, justice and right, and with the development 
of the higher elements in man’s nature — with the love of art, science, 
the ideal, and also with the philanthropic and humanitary sentiments. 


We will preface the extracts which follow by a few remarks that 
will perhaps enable the reader to appreciate more fully the character 
and tendency of the criticisms which they contain. 

Fourier was engaged, in the early part of his life, in commercial 
pursuits. His father, a cloth merchant, placed him as clerk in a large 
commercial house in Lyons, where he remained some time, and then 
went to Marseilles, where he was employed in the same capacity. He 
had, consequently, ample and practical facilities for studying the com¬ 
mercial system. He soon conceived a profound antipathy for it; the 
fraud, falseness, deception, low scheming, rapacity, and other charac¬ 
teristics which he met with in commercial life, excited in him both 
hatred and contempt. This explains the bitterness of his criticisms 
and his denunciations. He began early to seek for the means of re¬ 
forming Commerce; in his investigations of the subject, he was led to 
study the problem of Agncultural Association , which, in turn, put him 
on the path of his great discoveries. He saw that Commerce could 
not be reformed, and the exchange of products established on a true 
basis, so long as families, living isolatedly, carried on their industrial 
operations separately, and made, as a consequence, all their sales and 
purchases by retail. So long as they were not associated, they could 





APPENDIX. 201 

form no combination for buying and selling in a direct and wholesale 
manner. Association, then, was necessary to systematize and simplify 
commercial operations. The power, which the individual possesses of 
misrepresenting, overreaching and defrauding in trade for his own in¬ 
terest, grows out of the system of isolated families, which gives rise 
to social incoherence, and this, in turn, allows license in individual 
action. 

When Fourier come to study the problem of Association, he saw 
that, in order to associate men, it was necessary to associate and har¬ 
monize their characters, passions, tastes and inclinations, as these are 
the springs of action, the elements of social life. But to harmonize 
the Passions, now in a state of general conflict and discord, was truly 
a gigantic problem. Man cannot solve it; human reason and human 
legislation have tried the experiment and failed. Fourier came to the 
conclusion that if God had not created the Passions for harmony ; if 
he had not precalculated their action and employment in the social 
mechanism, their uses and their functions, and adapted to them a 
social Order, in which they would operate harmoniously, it was in 
vain for man to attempt it. Could he do what God had neglected, or 
otherwise decreed ? He began then to study the probable intentions 
of God in relation to the action of the passions and the organization 
of society. He came to the conclusion that these spiritual or moral 
forces in man must be capable of unity and harmony ; that such noble 
and important motors could not be inherently discordant, and out of 
unity with the general Order of creation, and that they must be 
regulated and governed in their action by the same Laws which reg¬ 
ulate and govern all elements and forces in the universe. He held 
them to be the constituent elements of a Social Harmony, yet to be 
discovered, as sounds are the elements of musical harmony, and the 
planets of siderial harmony. He came to the conclusion that the great 
problem for human reason to solve was to discover the Laws that 
governed them. To solve this problem, it was necessary to discover 
the Regulative Principle in the universe, that is, the Laws by which 
order and harmony are established and maintained in creation. Fourier 
undertook the -work, and by his penetrating genius he discovered, in 
their general outlines, the Laws of universal harmony, which he des¬ 
ignates technically in his works by the name of the Law of the Series, 
as the Series comprise that portion of the Laws of universal harmony 
which relate especially to Distribution and Classification. 

9 * 


202 


APPENDIX. 


Thus, from a desire to reform Commerce, Fourier was led to study 
the problem of Association; from the study of Association, he was led 
to investigate the possibility of harmonizing the Passions, and from 
this investigation, in turn, to the exploration of the Laws of universal 
Harmony. 


COMMERCIAL LICENSE: 

ITS KNOWN EVILS AND UNKNOWN DANGERS. 


[FROM FOURIER’S FIRST WORK, PUBLISHED IN 1808.] 

We are about to probe Civilization in its most sensitive part; to 
raise one’s voice against the dominant folly of the times, against chi¬ 
meras in full vogue, is always a painful task. 

To speak at the present day against commercial follies and 
blunders, is to expose one’s self to anathema, as if one had spoken in 
the twelfth century against the tyranny of Popes and Barons. Were 
it necessary to choose between the two dangerous alternatives, I con¬ 
sider there would be less risk in offending a sovereign by the an¬ 
nouncement of disagreeable truths, than in offending the mercantile 
power, which reigns as a despot over Civilization and even over sov¬ 
ereigns themselves. 

It is never at the height of an infatuation that men form sound 
opinions on social questions. Witness the supremacy of the commer¬ 
cial theories now in vogue; we shall show by a brief analysis that 
they tend to deprave and disorganize Civilization in every sense, and 
that in the matter of Commerce, as in everything else, society is led 
more and more astray under the auspices of the speculative sciences. 

The commercial controversy dates back hardly half a century, and 
its writers have already published hundreds of volumes, without dis¬ 
covering that the mechanism of commerce is organized in opposition 
to common sense. It subordinates the whole social body to a class of 
parasitic and unproductive agents, called Merchants. All the essential 
classes — the land-owner, the cultivator, the manufacturer, and even 
the government itself—are under the control of a secondary and ac¬ 
cessory class, namely the Merchants, who should be their subordinates, 
their commissioned agents, removable and responsible, whereas at pres¬ 
ent they direct and obstruct at will the whole system of exchange and 
circulation. 



204 


COMMERCE. 


Such is the thesis on which I shall dissert; I shall show that in 
sound politics the commercial body should be collectively responsible 
for all its acts, and that the social body should be guaranteed against 
bankruptcy, stock-jobbing, monopoly, speculation, usury, deterioration 
and waste, and all other evils resulting from the present system — a 
system which would have long since aroused the indignation of polit¬ 
ical writers, if they had had the shadow of the respect for good mor¬ 
als which they pretend. In this first Memoir, I wish only to introduce 
the question, and point out the evils and abuses which attest our 
ignorance, and which should have led to researches for a mode of 
commercial exchanges much less defective and pernicious than the 
present, which we call Free Competition. 

For the exchange of products, as for all other relations, there is a 
method especially adapted to each Social Period. For example : 

In the fourth Period or Barbarism, compulsory sales, limitation of 
prices, tariffs, etc., .determined by the government. 

In the fifth Period or Civilization, free competition, and irresponsi¬ 
bility of the merchant to the social body. 

In the sixth Period or Guarantism, collective competition, joint 
responsibility, and the subordination of the commercial body to the 
interests of the producers, manufacturers, cultivators and land-owners. 

In the course of the discussion I shall have occasion to express 
opinions but little flattering to the commercial system in general; but 
I have already observed that in criticising a profession, I do not criti¬ 
cise the individuals who exercise it. Those who declaim against the 
manoeuvres of monopolists, speculators, etc., would, perhaps, if in their 
place, surpass them in rapacity. We should blame, not the passions 
of individuals, but Civilization only, Avhich, opening to the passions 
no career but that of fraud, compels men to practice fraud in order to 
attain to fortune, without which the passions cannot be satisfied. 

The subject will be divided under the following heads : 

1. Origin of Political Economy and of the Mercantile Controversy. 

2. Spoliation of the social body by Bankruptcy. 

3. “ u “ by Monopoly and Forestalling. 

4. “ “ u by Agiotage. 

5. “ “ “ by Commercial Parasitism. 

6. Decline of Civilization through the Commercial Policy, which is 
leading to the fourth Phase of this Order. 


COMMENCE. 


205 


I. 

ORIGIN OP POLITICAL ECONOMY AND OF THE MERCANTILE 
CONTROVERSY. 

This is a subject well worthy of an epic. Muse, recount to us the 
exploits of the audacious innovators who have vanquished our old and 
time-honored philosophy — of this new sect, the Economists, which, 
springing suddenly into existence, has dared to attack the revered dog¬ 
mas of Greece and Rome. The true models of virtue — the Cynics, 
the Stoics, all the illustrious lovers of poverty and mediocrity — have 
been discomfited, and now cringe before the Economists, who combat 
in the cause of Wealth and Luxury. The divine Plato, the divine 
Seneca, are driven from their thrones. The black broth of the Spar¬ 
tans, the turnips of Cincinnatus, the rags of Diogenes, in fine, all the 
panaceas of the moralists have become powerless, have all vanished 
before these impious innovators who permit the love of splendor, lux¬ 
ury, and the vile metals. 

Humanly speaking. Civilization has changed Phase. It has passed 
from the second to the third Phase, in which the Commercial spirit 
reigns in Politics, exclusively. This change has grown out of the pro¬ 
gress of the Nautical Art and of Colonial Monopolies. The philoso¬ 
phers, who always support a social movement after it is accomplished, 
chimed in with the spirit of the age, and as soon as they saw the 
commercial policy dominant, commenced to extol it; thus originated 
the sect of Political Economists, and with it the mercantile contro¬ 
versy. 

How happens it that the philosophers have changed their opinions 
after so many centuries, and now come to meddle in questions of com¬ 
merce, which was the object of their ancient disdain ? In classic an¬ 
tiquity they never ceased to ridicule it. 

Still it might have been seen, by the influence of Tyre and Car¬ 
thage, that the Commercial Power would one day overmaster the Ag¬ 
ricultural Power, and control the political policy of the world. But 
the event not having occurred , it therefore never could occur ? Such is 
the logic of Civilized politics; it sees nothing but the past. Hence 
future generations will represent Civilization by a head reversed and 
looking backward. 

Up to the middle of the eighteenth century, the speculative sci- 


200 


COMMERCE. 


ences fostered the old prejudice which treated commerce with con¬ 
tempt; witness the spirit that reigned in France in 1788. Then the 
Collegians in their debates often sneered at an adversary, calling h.m 
the son of a tradesman, and it was a cruel insult. Such was the feel¬ 
ing in the provinces ; the mercantile spirit was confined to the seaports 
and large capitals, where resided the great merchants, bankers and 
stock-jobbers. 

Thus, in its origin, Commerce was misunderstood and despised by 
the philosophers, who know so little about it, even at the present day, 
as to confound it with the useful profession of manufactures. It failed 
to secure their homage till it had completely triumphed ; then their 
orators celebrated the virtue of the merchants and partook of their 
fine dinners. In a word, the philosophers began to flatter commerce 
only when it had obtained the vogue; before, they did not think it 
worthy their attention. Spain, Portugal, Holland and England carried 
on their commercial monopolies for a long time, without the philoso¬ 
phers dreaming of either praising or blaming them. Holland had suc¬ 
ceeded in accumulating its immense wealth without asking any aid of 
the Political Economists, whose sect, in fact, had not been born when 
the Dutch had already piled up tons of gold. 

We might ask of the Economists, whether it is their intention to 
diminish or to multiply social scourges — such, for instance, as increase 
of taxes, the augmentation of armies, the encroachments of the para¬ 
sitic classes, national debts, bankruptcies, etc. It is certain that none 
of these scourges ever increased so rapidly as since the birth of Polit¬ 
ical Economy. Would it not have been better if the science, as well 
as the evil, had made less progress ? 

What motives could have decided the philosophers, those vehement 
apostles of truth and honesty, to rally in the eighteenth century to 
the support of duplicity and fraud — that is, of Commerce ? For what 
is Commerce ? It is nothing but fraud and duplicity, with all their 
paraphernalia of monopoly, speculation, usury, bankruptcy and roguery 
of every description ; but modern philosophy passes a sponge over all 
these scandalous abuses. Let us point out the causes of this effront¬ 
ery, applying to these savants the analytic methods they pretend to 
apply to everything. 

In deciding to preach up Commerce, they were swayed only by the 
influence of wealth. They were allured by the enormity and rapid 
accumulation of mercantile fortunes ; the independence attached to the 


COMMERCE. 


207 


mercantile profession, which is at once the most free and the most 
favorable to personal ambition ; the air of grand speculation given to 
vile manoeuvres which the merest dolt could couceive and direct at 
the end of a month; and, finally, by the luxury and display of wealthy 
speculators and stock-jobbers, who often vie in magnificence with the 
grandees of the state. All this eclat dazzles the philosophers, who, 
ai'ter sleepless nights and countless schemes, succeed only in earning a 
few francs and obtaining a little humiliating patronage. At the sight 
of these commercial and financial Plutuses, they became bewildered 
and hesitated between sycophancy and censure. At last the weight of 
gold turned the scale, and they became, finally, the very humble serv¬ 
ants of the mercantile class, and the warm admirers of the commercial 
policy they had so much ridiculed. But how could one help admiring 
these great operators, speculators and stock-jobbers, who, with their 
art, succeed in acquiring palaces in cities which they entered barefoot. 
We see them in our large capitals living in luxury and splendor by 
the side of literary men, living in poverty and obscurity. A philoso¬ 
pher admitted to the mansion of a stock-jobber, finds himself seated at 
table between a countess and an ambassador. What course is one to 
take under such circumstances but to worship the saints of the day ? 
For nobody makes his way in Civilization by proclaiming truths; and 
hence we see why the philosophers, while nourishing a secret hatred 
against Commerce, have nevertheless bowed before the golden calfj not 
daring to write a page without sounding the praises of u le Commerce 

immense et V immense Commerce.” And yet they had everything to 

gain by attacking it; for by denouncing the frauds and spoliations of 
Commerce, which they secretly despise as much as Commerce despises 

them, they might have regained their lost position, and repaired their 

defeats. An analysis of Commerce will show that the mercantile body 
(care must be taken not to confound it with the manufacturing class), 
is in Civilization but a horde of confederated pirates — a flock of vul¬ 
tures, preying upon agriculture and manufactures, and plundering the 
social body in every possible way. This, be it understood, without 
criticising them individually. They are ignorant themselves of the per¬ 
nicious character of their profession, and even were they aware of it, 
how can one be blamed for being a spoliator in Civilization, when this 
Society is but a game between rogues and dupes ? — a truth already 
too well known, but which will be made still more evident in the fol¬ 
lowing chapters. 


208 


COMMERCE. 


II. 

SPOLIATION OP THE SOCIAL BODY BY BANKRUPTCY. 

When a crime becomes common in society, it is looked upon with 
indifference. In Italy and Spain a hired assassin poignards his victim 
with impunity and retires for protection to the nearest church. In 
Germany and France, where the national character is opposed to 
treachery, such an assassin would be looked upon with so much ab¬ 
horrence that he would perhaps be torn in pieces by the populace 
before the authorities had time to arrest him. And how many other 
crimes we see dominant in one nation and abhorred by its next neigh¬ 
bor? In Italy, parents mutilate their children in order to perfect the 
voice, and the ministers of a God of Peace patronize the custom by 
devoting these unfortunate victims of paternal avarice to the service 
of his altars. This, again, is an abomination which would excite hor¬ 
ror in any other Civilized nation. In the same way, you will find 
among the French, the Germans, the Russians and the English, other 
revolting customs which would arouse the indignation of the Italians 
and Spaniards. 

If the customs and opinions prevailing in Civilization vary so much 
in different nations, how much must they vary in different Orders of 
society, and how odious would appear the vices tolerated in the Civil¬ 
ized Order to less imperfect societies. In the sixth, Guarantism, which 
will still be far from perfection, it will be difficult to believe that na¬ 
tions calling themselves polite, and having theories of property and 
justice, could have tolerated for an instant such abominations as Bank¬ 
ruptcy. 

Bankruptcy is the most ingenious and the most impudent form of 
roguery which has ever existed. It insures to every tradesman the 
privilege of plundering the public of a sum proportioned to his fortune 
or credit, so that a rich man may say to himself: “ I shall establish 
myself as a merchant this year; two years hence, on such a day, I 
shall plunder the community of so many thousands.” 

From the doctrine of leaving the merchants entirely free, without re¬ 
quiring of them any guaranty of their 'prudence , probity or solvency , 
has sprung, among other abuses, Bankruptcy — a kind of robbery much 
more odious than that of the highway. We are nevertheless accus¬ 
tomed to tolerate it, even to the extent of recognizing honest bank- 




COMMERCE. 


209 


ruptcies, or those in which the speculator makes way with only one 
half; here is an example : 

The banker Dorante possesses a fortune of half a million, and 
wishes to increase it by some means to a million. On the strength of 
his known property, he obtains credit in bills of exchange, produce, 
etc., to the amount of two millions. He can then operate with a cap¬ 
ital of ' two millions and a half. He engages in vast commercial and 
financial speculations. Perhaps at the end of a year, instead of hav¬ 
ing doubled his original half-million, he will have lost it. You would 
think him ruined. Not at all. He will yet come out ■with a million, 
just as if he had succeeded; for he has on hand the two millions 
obtained on credit, and, by means of an “ honest bankruptcy,” he com¬ 
promises with his creditors, and pays fifty per cent, on time. Thus, 
after having lost his original fortune, he finds himself possessed of a 
million, robbed from the public. A fine thing, this commercial liberty! 
And do we not understand now w r hy we hear it said every day of 
some merchant: “Since his failure, he is very well off?” Here is 
another game for the bankrupt: Dorante, after his robbery of half 
a million, preserves his honor and the esteem of the public, not as 
being a fortunate rogue, but as being an unfortunate merchant. 

The partisans of Commercial Liberty talk about repressive laws, 
tribunals, etc. Ah, indeed! tribunals against men who have robbed 
millions at a single stroke! The proverb which says that “petty 
thieves are punished while great ones only escape,” is found false when 
applied to Commerce, for even the smallest bankruptcies escape the 
pursuit of justice, being favored by the merchants themselves. For 
example : 

Scapin, a small shop-keeper, fails for only forty thousand francs. 
He pockets thirty thousand, the profits of the operation, and gives to 
his creditors the remaining ten thousand. If called upon to give an 
account of the thirty thousand deficit, he replies that he does not 
know how to keep books, like the large dealers, and that he has met 
with misfortunes. You fancy that Scapin will be punished because he 
is only a petty thief, who has pocketed but thirty thousand francs ; 
yet the creditors know full well that if they go to law, it will eat up 
the ten thousand balance, wdiich wmuld only be a mouthful for it. The 
ten thousand swallowed up, there would still be nothing decided, and 
if you wish to have Scapin hung, it will be necessary, perhaps, to 
spend another ten thousand, without being quite sure of success after 


210 


COMMERCE. 


all. It is better, then, to take the small sum of ten thousand than to 
expend as much more. Scapin takes advantage of this argument 
through the medium of his attorney, so that in fact it is the creditor, 
instead of the bankrupt, who is threatened with the law. And why 
should the creditors of Scapin be severe with him ? Some of them 
think of following his noble example, and others have preceded him 
in it. 

It is useless to cite certain fraudulent bankrupts who have been 
punished, for out of a hundred ninety-nine escape, while if the hun¬ 
dredth is foiled, he is without doubt a simpleton, who* has not known 
how to manage his game, for the operation is so certain at the present 
day that the ordinary precautions which were once taken are now 
neglected. Formerly, the bankrupt fled to Trente, to Liege, to Ca- 
rouge ; but since the political regeneration of 1789, this practice has 
fallen into disuse. The operation is now quietly prepared beforehand, 
and when it comes out, the bankrupt goes and spends a month in the 
country with his relatives and friends, while in the interim everything 
is arranged by the notary. The bankrupt reappears after some weeks, 
and the public is so much accustomed to this manoeuvre that it is con¬ 
sidered a smart thing. It is. called “lying-in,” and we hear it said 
very coolly: “Mr. Such-a-one is just out from his confinement.” 

Bankruptcy is a social crime which is epidemic, and which forces 
the upright merchant to imitate the rogue. I will illustrate this by 
an example of bankruptcies en feu de file — one involving another. 

The Jew, Iscariot, arrives in France with a capital of a hundred 
thousand francs, Which he has gained by his first bankruptcy. He 
establishes himself as a tradesman in a city where he has for rivals six 
respectable houses in good credit. To get the advantage of these, he 
begins by offering his goods at cost, this being a sure means of attract¬ 
ing the crowd. Soon the rivals of Iscariot cry out against him; he 
laughs at their lamentations, and continues more than ever to offer his 
goods at cost. Then the people begin to exclaim : “ Hurrah for oppo¬ 
sition ! Competition is the life of trade! Long life to the Jews! 
Since the arrival of Iscariot, everything has fallen in price!” And 
the public say to the rival houses : “ It is you, gentlemen, who are the 
real Jews; you wish to make too much profit. Iscariot only is an 
honest man. He is satisfied with a moderate price, because his store 
is less splendid than yours.” Vainly the old firms represent that Is¬ 
cariot is a rogue in disguise, who will sooner or later become a bank- 








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211 


rupt; people accuse them of jealousy, and run more and more after 
the Israelite. 

See the calculation of the rogue : by selling at cost price, he makes 
no other loss than the interest on his capital, say ten thousand francs 
a year, but he finds a good market, gets the reputation in the com¬ 
mercial towns of doing an extensive business, and if he is somewhat 
exact in his first payments, obtains a large credit. The artifice is 
continued for two years, at the end of which time Iscariot has made 
nothing, though he has done an immense trade. His scheme is not 
divulged, because the Jews employ nobody but Jews—a people se¬ 
cretly hostile to all others, and who never betray any knavery con¬ 
cocted among themselves. 

When everything is ready for the crisis, Iscariot uses all his credit, 
and sends orders to the principal cities to the amount of five or six 
hundred thousand francs, purchased on time. He then exports the 
goods to a foreign country, and sells his stock on hand at the lowest 
juice. Tin ally, whgn he has turned everything into cash, honest Isca¬ 
riot disappears with his money, and goes f to Germany, where he has 
sent the goods bought on credit. He sells these at once, and finds 
that he left France four times richer than when he went there. He is 
now worth four hundred thousand francs, and goes to Leghorn or 
London to prepare for a third bankruptcy. It is then that the veil 
falls, and the peojde among whom he has jdayed his garhe come to 
their senses. The danger of dealing with Jews, with vagabonds who 
hold to nothing, is at last recognized. But this bankruptcy of Iscariot 
is only the first act of the farce ; let us follow it to the end. 

There were six houses in competition with the Israelite ,* let us 
name them A., B., C., D., E., F. 

A. had been in difficulties for a long time. He kept up without 
capital on the strength of his good reputation; but the arrival of Isca¬ 
riot having taken away all his customers, he struggles on but a year 
longer, after which he loses courage, and not understanding the new 
economical systems which protect vagabonds, is forced to yield before 
the tactics of Iscariot, and go into bankruptcy. 

B. stands the shock longer. He saw the failure of Iscariot in the 
distance, and waited till the storm had passed, in order to get back 
his customers taken from him by the knavish Israelite. But in the 
interval, B. suffers from a bankruptcy in another town; this is suffi- 


212 


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cient to hasten his fall. He hoped to hold out two years, but at the 
end of fifteen months he too is obliged to go into bankruptcy. 

C. is in partnership with a firm elsewhere, which is ruined by an¬ 
other Iscariot (for the tribe is found everywhere); he is dragged down 
by the fall of his partner, and after making sacrifices for eighteen 
months to sustain a competition against the Hebrew thief, C. too is 
forced into bankruptcy. 

D. has a kind of probity, but it is more apparent than real. 
Though he suffers for twenty months from competition with the Jew, 
he has means enough left to keep up; but irritated by the losses he 
has sustained, he follows the example he sees everywhere about him. 
Finding that three of his colleagues have led the way, he concludes 
that he, the fourth, will pass with the rest under the pretext of real or 
fictitious ‘‘misfortunes.” Moreover, he is disgusted with a struggle of 
twenty months against the Israelite, and finds no course more prudent 
than to go into bankruptcy. 

E. had loaned large sums to the four others who failed. He be¬ 
lieved them to be solvent, as, in fact, before the manoeuvres of Iscariot 
had undermined their trade, they were. These -four failures subject 
him to great losses. Moreover, he has no more customers ; everybody 
goes to Iscariot, who sells at cost. E. thus finds his resources ex¬ 
hausted, and his credit shaken. He is pressed by his creditors, and, 
being unable to fulfill his engagements, finishes, with the rest, by going 
into bankruptcy. 

F. , though not wanting in means, finds his credit shaken in all the 
large cities, owing to the failure of his five predecessors, which leads 
to the suspicion that he will not be long in following their example. 
Besides, some of them who have made a compromise with their cred¬ 
itors, sell at very low prices to be able to meet their first notes under 
the new arrangement. The latter, to expedite their sales, sacrifice a 
tenth, and still make a profit of four tenths, since they have settled 
at fifty per cent. F. finds himself crushed by these circumstances 
and is compelled, like the rest, to go into bankruptcy. 

It is thus that a single vagabond^, may disorganize the entire body 
of tradesmen in a large town, and drag the most honest persons into 
crime ; for every bankruptcy is more or less criminal, though colored 
by specious pretexts, like those above described, in which there is 
rarely anything of truth. 

If fo bankruptcy, we add the numerous other commercial abuses, 


COMMERCE, 


213 


such as monopoly, speculation, usury, etc., growing out of our eco¬ 
nomic systems, we shall see the force of the opinion already expressed, 
namely, that the Civilizees have never committed more blunders than 
since they gave in to the commercial spirit, and adopted the theory 
that all mercantile enterprises must result in the general good, and 
therefore that the merchants should be left in entire liberty, without 
being required to give any guaranty as to the result of their opera¬ 
tions. 

And how is it that the Economists, who talk of nothing but checks 
and guaranties, have never secured to the social body those which 
governments have had the good sense to require of their fiscal agents ? 
A government makes sure of the fidelity of its collectors and receivers 
by requiring them to give bonds, and by exposing them to inevitable 
punishment if they dare to risk or squander the public funds with 
which they are intrusted. Why do we not see half of the receivers 
of public moneys appropriating them to their own use, and saying to 
the government in a whining letter: u The misfortunes of the times, 
critical circumstances, deplorable reverses ' — in a word, I have failed. 
The amount of public funds deposited with me amounts to two mill¬ 
ions. I offer to reimburse one half, a million, payable in five years. 
Have compassion on an unfortunate receiver, continue me in your con¬ 
fidence and in the management of your funds, without which I can¬ 
not pay you even the half I now offer. Only retain me in my place, 
and I will try to honor my engagements.” 

Such, in substance, are the contents of all letters from bankrupts. 
If the receivers of the public moneys do not follow their example, it 
is because they are certain that no philosophical theory will save them 
from the punishment from which bankrupts escape, on the principle of 
leaving merchants entire liberty without requiring from them any guar¬ 
anty against malpractices. 

Let us continue our analysis of these mercantile abuses, which 
should lead us to suspect the whole existing system of commerce, 
and to seek some method for the exchange of products less false than 
Free Competition, which would be better named Anarchical Competi¬ 
tion. 


214 


COMMERCE. 


III. 

SPOLIATION OF THE SOCIAL BODY BY MONOPOLY AND FORESTALLING. 

Monopoly is the most odious of commercial crimes, in that it affects 
the poorest class of producers. If there occurs a scarcity in any arti¬ 
cle of food, or in produce of any kind, the monopolists are on the 
look-out to aggravate the evil. They buy up the stock on hand, make 
advances on the supplies expected, take the article out of the market, 
and double or treble the price by circulating exaggerated reports of 
scarcity, and thus exciting fears which are discovered, too late, to be 
unfounded. They are a band of disorganizers — vultures let loose 
against honest Industry. They are, nevertheless, upheld by a class of 
savants — the Economists — and nothing is more respectable at the 
present time than forestalling and monopoly, which are called, in 
the language of the day, speculating and financiering, because it would 
be rude to call them by their right names. 

A singular result of the Civilized Order is, that if the classes evi¬ 
dently pernicious — the monopolists and forestalled, for instance — 
were directly suppressed, the evil would become still greater; we had 
sufficient proof of this under the Reign of Terror. 

It is this fact which has led the philosophers to conclude that the 
merchants should not be interfered with, should be left free. A curi¬ 
ous remedy, this, for an evil — to maintain it, because we have failed 
to discover its antidote! One should have been sought, and till it had 
been discovered, the schemes of the monopolists and forestalled, in¬ 
stead of being extolled, should have been denounced ; we should have 
encouraged researches for some method competent for their suppression, 
and this would have been found in Collective Competition. 

Let us analyze the achievements of these monopolists. I shall cite 
two examples : one, of the monopoly in grains, Avhich is the most per¬ 
nicious ; the other, of the monopoly in raw materials, which appears 
more excusable since it embarrasses Industry only, without starving 
the people. 

1. Monopoly of Grains. The fundamental principle of the exist¬ 
ing commercial system, the principle of non-interference with com¬ 
merce, gives to the merchants the absolute proprietorship of the pro¬ 
duce in which they traffic. They are allowed the right of taking it 
out of the market, concealing it, and even of burning it, as the Dutch 



COMMERCE. 


215 


East India Company have done more than once, publicly burning 
whole warehouses of cinnamon to raise the price of that article. And 
what they have done with cinnamon, they would do with wheat, but 
for the fear of being stoned by the people. They would have des¬ 
troyed half the grain in store, or left it to rot, in order to sell the 
other half at four times its value. Indeed, do we not in our ports 
constantly see grain thrown into the docks, grain which merchants 
have left to decay while waiting for a rise in the market ? 

I myself, in my capacity as clerk, have presided over these infa¬ 
mous operations, and have, in one day, caused twenty thousand quin¬ 
tals of rice to be thrown into the sea, rice which might have been 
sold, before it was allowed to decay, at a fair price, if the holder had 
been less greedy of gain. It is the social body which supports the 
loss of this waste, which is constantly going on under the principle of 
non-interference with commerce. 

Suppose, carrying out this principle, that a rich company of mer¬ 
chants should, in a year of famine, such as 1709, monopolize all the 
grain in a small state like Ireland, at a tim6 when the general scar¬ 
city, and the prohibition in neighboring states against exportation ren¬ 
dered supplies from abroad almost impossible ? Suppose that the com¬ 
pany, after having bought up all the grain in the market, should 
refuse to sell it except at three or four times its value, saying: “ This 
grain is our property ; it pleases us to sell it at three or four times 
the original cost; if you refuse to buy it on these terms, get your 
supplies elsewhere, import them from abroad. Meanwhile, if a fourth 
of the population die of famine, what matters that to us? We shall 
persist in our speculation and are only carrying out the principle of 
commercial liberty, sanctioned by Political Economy.” 

I ask wherein the proceeding of such a company would differ from 
those of a band of highway robbers? For their monopoly would 
compel the whole nation, under penalty of starvation, to pay them a 
ransom equal to triple or quadruple the value of their whole stock of 
grain. And when we consider that such a company, according to the 
rule of commercial liberty, would have the right to refuse to sell at 
any price, to leave the grain to rot in the warehouses while the peo¬ 
ple were perishing, think you that the famished nation would be bound 
in conscience to die of starvation for the honor of the vaunted princi¬ 
ple of non-interference with commerce ? Certainly not. Confess, then, 
that commercial freedom should be subjected to-restrictions, according 


21G 


COMMERCE. 


to the wants of the social body; that a merchant, holding a surplus of 
any article of food, of which he is neither the producer nor the con¬ 
sumer, should be considered as the conditional depositary , and not as 
the absolute owner. Confess that the merchants — the intermediate 
agents for the exchange of products — ought in their operations to be 
subordinated to the good of the mass, and not be left free to embarrass 
business relations by those disastrous manoeuvres so much admired by 
the Economists. 

2. Monopoly of Raw Materials. I shall demonstrate the evils 
of this by an event which is taking place as I write, namely, the 
enormous rise in the price of foreign produce — sugar, coffee, cotton, 
etc. I shall speak particularly of cotton, because it is this which has 
advanced the most, and because it is an article of first necessity for 
our rising manufactures ; but my remarks will be applicable to monop¬ 
olies of all kinds. 

In the course of the Autumn of 1806, it was perceived that the 
importations of colonial products, and especially of cotton, would be 
small, and that the supplies would arrive too late in the season ; still, 
there was no fear that the manufacturers would suffer, as there was stock 
enough in the market to suffice for a year’s consumption. The gov¬ 
ernment, by ordering an inventory, could have established this fact, 
and meanwhile there would have been time to adopt the necessary 
precautions for the future. But the monopolists intervened, bought up 
and stored all the cotton in the market, and convinced the public, by 
false reports, that the manufacturers would be out of stock in less than 
three months. A rise in the market followed, which increased the 
price of cottons to double their usual rate, and threatened to ruin 
most of the French manufacturers, who could not advance the price 
of their fabrics to meet the advance in the raw material, and many 
of whom had, in consequence, to close their establishments and dismiss 
their operatives. 

Meanwhile there was in fact no real scarcity ; on the contrary, the 
rich manufacturers themselves, become monopolists, had purchased cot¬ 
ton on speculation, and after reserving supplies for their own mills, 
were selling the surplus at the advanced rates. 

In a word, the stock which was wanted by the regular consumers 
got into the hands of the speculators, and it was discovered, in the 
end, that France was neither devoid of supplies nor threatened with a 
scarcity. 


COMMERCE. 217 

In this conjuncture, what advantages did the community derive 
from commercial license — from free competition ? Simply these : 

1. The doubling in price of a staple material of which there was 
no real scarcity, and the price of which should have been advanced 
little if any. 

2. The closing up of manufactories which had been slowly and with 
difficulty established. 

3. The enriching of a coalition of monopolists and forestallers to 
the detriment of productive industry. 

These are simple facts. It will be replied to my argument, that if 
the government had interfered with free competition and the right of 
monopoly, matters would have been made worse. I admit it; but you 
only prove by this that the Economists know no remedy for monop¬ 
oly. Is that a reason for not seeking one? And does it follow that 
monopoly is right ? When you know no antidote for a social disease, 
have courage enough to confess that it is a calamity. Do not listen to 
the philosophers, who extol the evil only to .excuse themselves for 
their ignorance how to correct it. When they counsel you to tolerate 
monopoly and forestalling for fear of a greater evil, they resemble the 
ignoramus who advises you to let a fever take its course because he 
knows no means of arresting it. Because men are ignorant of the 
means of preventing monopoly, is it prudent, therefore, to tolerate it 
without limit ? No ; and I shall show that the government might often 
have prevented such calamities as I have mentioned, without either 
resorting to force, or exercising any arbitrary power. 


IV. 

SPOLIATION OP THE SOCIAL BODY BY AGIOTAGE.* 

Agiotage is the brother of Monopoly ; they have each in turn sub¬ 
jugated public opinion to the extent of making even sovereigns submit 
and of openly opposing the operations of princes,, who, deceived by 


* We retain this term because there is no one word in the English language 
sufficiently comprehensive to be substituted for it; it signifies the manoeuvres of 
speculators to raise or lower the price of public funds, stocks, and the products of 
industry ; it consequently comprises stock-gambling, speculation, plots of monopoly 
and forestalling, and in general all schemes for producing a fictitious rise or fall in 
the market.— Translator. 

10 




218 


COMMERCE. 


certain sophisms, dare not even contemplate resistance, nor propose 
the discovery of any other commercial system. The following is an 
example of the tyranny which Agiotage exercises over sovereigns. I 
select a recent fact — the last manoeuvre of the French Agioteurs. 

During the late war with Austria, an obscure financial conspiracy 
counterbalanced the victories of Ulm and of Austerlitz. At the mo¬ 
ment when France manifested the blindest confidence in the operations 
of the Chief of ihe Empire, the Agioteurs caused to break out the symp¬ 
toms of a universal distrust. One would have said that it was Varron 
who commanded our armies. In two months the Agioteurs of Paris 
committed unparalleled ravages upon the Industry of France ; it re¬ 
quired the flood of sudden and miraculous victories which followed, to 
finally silence these Agioteurs, whose schemes threatened to destroy 
public credit, and made one shudder to think into what financial dis¬ 
tress France would have fallen, if she had made only a neutral cam¬ 
paign, without either successes or reverses. 

The pretexts of the alarmists were based upon the advance which, 
they said, had been made by the Bank of France for the opening of 
the campaign; this advance was estimated at fifty millions of francs, 
which was only a hundredth part of the territorial revenue of the 
country. And even if this advance had not been guaranteed by the 
whole capital of the Bank, and by the public deposits, was it not am¬ 
ply guaranteed in the eyes of the French, by the confidence reposed 
in their sovereign ? 

There is a Power, then, which exercises ascendance over heroes as 
over the public opinion of nations ; this Pow’er is Agiotage, which con¬ 
trols at will the whole industrial mechanism ; it places empires at the 
mercy of a class of parasites, who, being neither land-owners nor man¬ 
ufacturers, caring for nothing but their strong-box, and being able to 
change their country from one day to another, are interested in spo¬ 
liating all, and preying alternately upon every branch of Industry. 
And though we see our economical theories upholding such scourges 
as Agiotage, Monopoly, Bankruptcy, etc., which constantly derange the 
whole industrial system, which baffle sovereigns even, and weaken the 
confidence that they inspire in their people — though we see these infa¬ 
mies, and so many others engendered by the system of commercial 
license, no writer has the courage to denounce this absurd science, 
called Political Economy, to condemn the existing commercial mechan¬ 
ism, or to propose any new method of industrial relations. They all 


COMMERCE. 


219 


cringe basely before commercial vices at which they are secretly indig¬ 
nant, and sound the praise of commerce, without devising any means 
for throwing off its yoke — so frightened are the Civilizees at the idea 
of reforms requiring a degree of inventive genius of which they be¬ 
lieve themselves incapable. 

Doubtless the political economists are secretly ashamed of their mer¬ 
cantile system; but to save their theories, they allow the evil to 
increase. They flatter these political pigmies, these Agioteurs and Mo¬ 
nopolists whom they have not the art to restrain, and accustom the 
public mind to truckle and bow at the very name of Commerce. How 
completely do such scandals give the lie to modern science, which 
makes so great a boast of its achievements. In what a quagmire has 
this science plunged modern empires! Were we not less degraded, and 
was not Civilization less contemptible, when mercantile philosophy and 
the economic sciences were yet unborn ? 


Y. 

SPOLIATION OF TIIE SOCIAL BODY BY COMMERCIAL PARASITISM. 

The abuse of which I shall now speak, though not so scandalous 
as those just described, is none the less prejudicial to the social body. 

In an age which has carried economy even into the minutest de¬ 
tails, substituting chickory for coffee, and making other savings which 
serve only to favor the impositions of tradesmen and to annoy con¬ 
sumers, who can hardly obtain pure and good articles at any price — 
in an age so mean and parsimonious, how is it that no one has re¬ 
marked that the chief economy should be economy of hands , economy 
of intermediate agents, who might be dispensed with, but who are 
so abundant in unproductive departments like that of commerce. 

I have already observed that it is frequently our custom to employ 
a hundred persons in functions which, in Association, would require 
but two or three, and that after the seventh social Period, twenty men 
will suffice to supply the markets of a city to which we now send a 
thousand. In respect to industrial organization, we are as unenlight¬ 
ened as nations ignorant of the use of the mill, and which employ 
fifty laborers to crush the grain which is ground among ns by a single 
machine. Everywhere the superfluity of agents is frightful; in all 
commercial operations the number is at least four times greater than is 


220 


COMMERCE. 


requisite^ Since the reign of free competition, we see tradesmen 
swarming even in our villages. Peasants renounce agriculture to be¬ 
come peddlers; if they have only a calf to sell, they go and spend 
days in town, idling about markets and public houses. 

In cities like Paris, there are as many as three thousand grocers, 
where three hundred would amply suffice. The profusion of agents is 
the same in the smallest towns ; those which are visited now in the 
course of the year by a hundred commercial travelers and a hundred 
peddlers, were not visited, perhaps, in 1788 by more than ten ; yet at 
that period there was no lack of either provisions or clothing, and at 
very moderate prices, though tradesmen were less numerous by a third 
than at the present. 

This multiplicity of rival tradesmen drives them constantly to the 
adoption of measures the most foolish and the most ruinous to the 
community; for superfluous agents, like monks, being consumers and 
not producers, are spoliators of the social body. It is now admitted 
that the monks of Spain, the number of whom is estimated at 500,000, 
might produce enough, if they were employed in agriculture, for the 
subsistence of 2,000,000 of persons. It is the same with superfluous 
tradesmen, the number of whom is incalculable ; and when we come 
to explain the commercial method of the sixth Period, Collective Com¬ 
petition, we shall be convinced that Commerce might be carried on 
with a fourth as many agents as it now employs, and that there are, 
in France alone, a million of inhabitants withdrawn from agriculture 
and manufactures by the superabundance of agents created by free 
competition. France alone, then, in consequence of the error of the 
Economists, suffers an annual loss of products sufficient for the sub¬ 
sistence of 4,000,000 inhabitants. 

Besides the waste of human labor, the present Order causes also a 
waste of capital and of products. I shall cite, as an illustration of this, 
one of the most common abuses of the present day, namely, the break¬ 
ing down of commercial rivals. 

Since the Revolution, we hear of nothing in the commercial world 
but the breaking down of rival tradesmen. Becoming too numerous, 
they compete furiously with each other for sales, which, owing to the 
excess of competition, are more and more difficult every day. A city 
which consumed a thousand tons of sugar when it had but ten trades¬ 
men, still consumes but a thousand tons when the number is increased 
to forty : this is seen all over the world. Now we see these swarms 


COMMERCE. 


221 


of merchants complaining of the dullness of trade, when they ought 
rather to complaiD of the superabundance of tradesmen. They exhaust 
themselves in making useless displays to attract customers, and run 
into the most foolish extravagance for the purpose of crushing their 
rivals. 


VI. 

CONCLUDING REMAKES ON COMMERCE. 

I have shown in the preceding chapters that Commerce, while ap¬ 
pearing to serve Industry, tends in every way to spoliate it, and have 
given tour illustrations of this, drawn from Bankruptcy, Monopoly, 
Agiotage and Parasitism. 

I. Bankruptcy spoliates the social body for the benefit of the mer¬ 
chants. who never support its losses; for if the merchant is prudent, 
he has calculated the chances of the bankruptcy of his customers, and 
fixed his profits at a rate which will cover the presumed risk. If he 
is imprudent or dishonest (qualities very similar in commercial affairs), 
he will not be long in becoming a bankrupt himself, and will then 
indemnify himself for the losses he has experienced by the bankruptcies 
of others; whence it follows, that the loss falls upon society at large, 
and not upon the merchant. 

II. Monopoly spoliates the social body, because the advance in 
price of a monopolized product falls ultimately upon the consumer, 
and. before that, upon the manufacturer, who, obliged to keep up his 
establishment, makes pecuniary sacrifices and manufactures at a very 
small profit. In the hope of better times, he sustains the business 
upon which he bases his calculations for support, but does not succeed 
for some time in establishing his prices at rates to meet the advanced 
price of raw materials forced upon him by the monopolists. 

III. Agiotage spoliates the social body by withdrawing capital from 
productive enterprises for the purpose of operating with it in public 
funds, of speculating in the rise and fall of stocks — a game which, in 
the hands of skilful players, yields enormous profits. The result is, 
that agriculturists and manufacturers cannot obtain the capital neces¬ 
sary for their business, except at an enormous interest; and useful 
enterprises, yielding only moderate profits, are disdained for financial 
speculations which absorb the principal part of the floating capital. 


222 


COMMERCE. 


IV. Parasitism, or superfluity of intermediate agents, spoliates the 
social body in two ways ; first, by withdrawing an immense number 
of hands, which it employs in unproductive labors ; second, by the 
immorality and disorders which are engendered by the desperate strug¬ 
gle between innumerable competitors, whose fraudulent manoeuvres put 
obstacles in the way of the exchange of products, amounting fre¬ 
quently to prohibition. 

Let us establish a comparison showing the inutility of the Merchants, 
and the importance of the Manufacturers, the interests of which two 
classes are so often confounded. 

The Manufacturer can easily supply the place and perform the 
functions of the Merchant; he can purchase his raw material of first 
hands, and either consign his manufactured products directly, or send 
his clerks over the country to sell them ; but the Merchant can in no 
case supply the place or perform the functions of the Manufacturer. 

If a city loses its Merchants, as happened in Marseilles in the time 
of the plague, their place is at once supplied with new-comers, if the 
locality is at all favorable to commerce. If a city loses its Manufac¬ 
turers, as happened in the case of Louvain, we do not find other Man¬ 
ufacturers transporting their machines and business there. Merchants 
abound wherever there are the means of trading freely and advant¬ 
ageously ; but Manufacturers are not always established, even in places 
where everything favors their success. The departure of the Manufac¬ 
turers from a country would reduce all the Merchants dealing in raw 
materials, and all their agents for buying or selling, to inactivity; 
while the departure of the Merchants would cause no stoppage of 
Manufactories, whose directors and clerks, as I have said, could supply 
the place of the Merchants. 

For example, the pYotestant Manufacturers of France, when they 
emigrated to Germany, were not replaced by catholic Manufacturers; 
their business was expatriated with them; but if Louis XIV. had pro¬ 
scribed only the Merchants and the Bankers, making an exception of 
the Manufacturers, the protestant Merchants would have been replaced 
the following year by catholic Merchants, and France would have ex¬ 
perienced only the loss of men and of money, which would have been 
easily repaired, instead of a loss of manufacturing Industry, which 
was irreparable. We find all governments anxious to send their Mer¬ 
chants to establish themselves in the East; but no government would 
like to see its Manufacturers establish themselves there. On the con- 


COMMERCE. 


223 


trary, every nation is eager to attract Manufacturers from China and 
India, though there is little desire to attract their Merchants or Navi¬ 
gators. 

The further we extend this comparison, the more we shall be con¬ 
vinced that the Merchants and Bankers should be rigorously watched. 
If we grant them full license, according to the advice of the econo¬ 
mists, they turn their capital against Industry; they imitate undis¬ 
ciplined soldiers who, the moment they are free from the fear of pun- 
• ishment, commence pillaging the country in which they should preserve 
order. 

It was a long time before the moderns came to suspect their idol, 
or to admit that the entire commercial system, which is a tissue of 
abuses, must be changed. It may be replied, that it would be better 
to propose a remedy for these abuses than to declaim against them, 
and that I should hasten to present the theory of Collective Competi¬ 
tion, which is to extirpate all commercial disorders. 

To this I answer, that my object is not to ameliorate Civilization, 
but to expose it, and to create a desire for a better social mechanism, 
by showing that the present Order, both as a whole and in all its parts, 
is absurd, and that, far from making any real progress, we are falling 
more and more into political errors ,*j. witness the late theories on the 
subject of political liberty and cOmnifrcial freedom — theories against 
which Nature and reason alike protest. 


VII. 

DECLINE OF THE CIVILIZED ORDER THROUGH THE INFLUENCE OF 
JOINT-STOCK CORPORATIONS, WHICH ARE LEADING TO THE FOURTH 
PHASE. . 

I shall merely allude to a subject here which should be treated in 
full, namely: The Right of Man to Labor — the right to regular and 
remunerative employment. I shall take good care not to renew the 
old political controversy upon the rights of man. After the revolu¬ 
tions to which this controversy has given rise, will it be believed that 
we are running the risk of new political convulsions for having over¬ 
looked the first and most important of these rights, namely: the Right 
to Labor? — a Right of which our politicians have never made the 
least mention, according to their uniform habit of omitting the most 
important questions in every branch of science. 


224 


COMMERCE. 


Among the influences tending to restrict this right, I shall cile the 
formation of privileged corporations which, conducting a given branch 
of Industry, monopolize it, and arbitrarily close the doors of labor 
against whomever they please. 

These corporations will become dangerous, and lead to new out¬ 
breaks and convulsions, by being extended to the whole commercial 
and industrial system. This event is not far distant, and it will be 
brought about all the more easily from the fact that it is not appre¬ 
hended. The greatest evils have often sprung -from imperceptible 
germs, as, for instance, Jacobinism. And if Civilization has engen¬ 
dered this and so many similar calamities, may it not engender others 
which we do not now foresee ? The most imminent of these is the 
birth of a Commercial Feudalism, or the Monopoly of Commerce and 
Industry by large joint-stock companies, leagued together for the pur¬ 
pose of usurping and controlling all branches of industrial relations. 
Extremes meet; and the greater the extent to which anarchical com¬ 
petition is carried, the nearer is the approach to the reign of universal 
Monopoly , which is the opposite excess. It is the fate of Civilization 
to be always balancing between extremes. Circumstances are tending 
toward the organization of the commercial classes into federal compa¬ 
nies or affiliated monopolies, which, Operating in conjunction with the 
great landed interest, will reducJj th$flniddle and laboring classes to a 
state of commercial vassalage, and, by the influence of combined ac¬ 
tion, will become masters of the productive industry of entire nations. 
The small operators will be forced, indirectly, to dispose of their pro¬ 
ducts according to the wishes of these monopolists ; they will become 
mere agents, working for the mercantile coalition. We shall thus see 
the reappearance of Feudalism in an inverse order, founded on mer¬ 
cantile leagues and answering to the Baronial leagues of the middle 
ages, f 

Everything is concurring to produce this result. The spirit of 
commercial monopoly and financial speculation has extended even to 
the great; the old nobility, ruined and dispossessed, seek distraction 
in financial speculations. The descendants of the old Knights excel 
in the mysteries of the Ready Reckoner and in the manoeuvres of the 
stock-market, as their chivalrous ancestors excelled at the tournaments. 
Public opinion prostrates itself before the bankers and financiers, who 
in the capital share authority with the government, and devise every 
day new means for the monopoly and control of Industry. 


COMMERCE. 225 

AVe are marching with rapid strides toward a Commercial Feudal* 
ism, and to the fourth Phase of Civilization. The philosophers, accus¬ 
tomed to reverence everything which comes in the name and under 
the sanction of commerce, will see this new Order spring up without 
alarm, and will consecrate their servile pens to celebrating its praises. 
Its debut will be one of brilliant promise, but the result will be an 
Industrial Inquisition, subordinating the whole people to the interests 
of the affiliated monopolists. Such are the melancholy results of our 
confidence in social guides who have no other object than to raise 
themselves by political intrigues to position and fortune. Philosophy 
needed some new subject to replace the old theological controversies, 
which it had completely exhausted; it was therefore to the Golden 
Calf, to Commerce, that it turned its eyes, making it an object of 
social idolatry and scholastic dispute. 

It is no longer to the Muses nor to their votaries,' but to Traffic and 
its heroes, that Fame now consecrates her hundred voices. We hoar 
no longer of Wisdom, of Virtue, of Morality 5 all that has fallen into 
contempt, and incense is now only burnt on the altar of Commerce. 
The true grandeur of a nation, its only glory, according to the econo¬ 
mists, is to sell to neighboring nations more cloths and calicoes than 
we purchase of them. France, always infatuated with novelties, inclines 
before the folly of the day, so that, now, no one can think or write 
except in praise of august Commerce. Even the great are slaves to 
this mania; a minister who wishes to become popular must promise to 
every village: U un Commerce immense et un immense Commerce ;” a 
nobleman journeying through the provinces must announce himself in 
every town as a friend of Commerce, traveling for the good of Com¬ 
merce. The savants of the nineteenth century are those who explain 
to us the mysteries of the stock-market. Poesy and the fine arts are 
disdained, and the Temple of Fame is open no longer except to those 
who tell ns why sugars are “feeble,” why soap is “firm.” Since phil¬ 
osophy has conceived a passion for Commerce, Polyhymnia decks the 
new science with flowers. The tenderest expressions have replaced the 
old language of the merchants, and it is noAV said, in elegant phrase, 
that “sugars are languid” — that is, are falling; that “soaps are look¬ 
ing up” — that is, have advanced. Formerly, pernicious manoeuvres 
of monopoly and speculation excited the indignation of writers; but 
now, these schemes are a title to distinction, and fame announces 
them in a Pindaric strain, saying: “A rapid and unexpected move- 
10 * 


220 


COMMERCE. 


ment has suddenly taken place in Soaps” —at which words we seem 
to see bars of soap leap from their boxes and wing their way to the 
clouds, while the speculators in soap hear their names resound through 
the whole land. Whatever Commerce touches, were it only a stock- 
certificate or a quintal of fish, the economists speak of it in a sublime 
style and in accents of delight. Under their pens, a cask of rum 
becomes a flask of rose-water, cheese exhales the perfume of the vio¬ 
let, and soap rivals the whiteness of the lily. All these flowers of 
rhetoric contribute, doubtless, to the success of Industry, which has 
found in the support of the Philosophers the same kind of assist¬ 
ance they have extended to the people, namely: fine phrases, but no 
results. 

When were there so many abuses, so much anarchy in the indus¬ 
trial world as now, when the mercantile policy is in the ascendant 
Because an insular nation, favored by the commercial indolence of 
France, has enriched itself by monopoly and maritime spoliation, be¬ 
hold all the old doctrines of philosophy disdained, Commerce extolled 
as the only road to truth, to wisdom, and to happiness, and the mer¬ 
chants become the pillars of the state, while all the continental Cabi¬ 
nets vie with each other-in their submission to a Power which suborns 
them with the profits she has levied upon their people. One is ready 
to believe in magic on seeing kings and empires thus circumvented 
by a few commercial sophisms, and exalting to the skies the race of 
monopolists, stock-jobbers, agioteurs, and other industrial corsairs, who 
employ their influence in concentrating masses of capital, in producing 
fluctuations in the price of products, in ruining alternately all branches 
of industry, and in impoverishing the producing classes, who are spo¬ 
liated en masse by vast monopolies, as we see herrings engulfed in the 
jaws of a whale. 

To sum up: I have already stated, in the course of the discussion, 
what would be the effect of Collective Competition, which is the anti¬ 
dote of the present system. 

I. It would lead, without compulsion and without the concession 
of exclusive privileges, to the formation of large Associations, which 
are the basis of all economy. 

IT. It would make the commercial body responsible to the commu¬ 
nity for all its operations, and allow to it only the conditional owner¬ 
ship of industrial products. 

III. It would restore to productive Industry the capital now em- 









COMMERCE. 


227 


ployed in Commerce ; for the social body being fully insured against 
all malpractices on the part of the merchants, they would every¬ 
where have accorded to them entire confidence ; they would have no 
occasion for employing large sums of money in their business, and the 
whole capital of the country could be invested in agriculture and 
manufactures. 

IY. It would restore to productive Industry three fourths of the 
hands now employed in the unproductive functions of Commerce. 

Y. It would compel the commercial body, by a system of equita¬ 
ble taxation, to support its share of public expenses, which it now has 
the skill to avoid. 

YI. Finally, it would establish in commercial relations a degree of 
probity and good faith, which, though less than will exist in the Com¬ 
bined Order, would still be immense as compared with the frauds and 
spoliations of the present system. 

The above synopsis will create a desire for an entire, chapter on 
Collective Competition, but I have already said that the object of this 
Prospectus is only to expose, the ignorance of our social and political 
guides, and to explain the ends they should have had in view in their 
investigations. For the rest, of what use would it be to stop to ex¬ 
plain the means of perfecting Civilization by measures, such as Col¬ 
lective Competition, borrowed from the sixth Period ? What signifies 
to us the ameliorations of the sixth or seventh Periods, since we can 
overleap them both and pass immediately to the eighth, which there¬ 
fore alone merits our attention ? 

When we shall have reached this Period, when we shall enjoy fully 
the happiness of the Combined Order, we can reason on the abuses 
of Civilization and their correctives at our ease. It is then that we 
may amuse ourselves with an analysis of the Civilized mechanism, 
which is the most curious of all, since it is that in which there is the 
greatest complication and confusion of elements. As for the present, 
the question is not to study, not to improve Civilization, but to quit 
it ; it is for this reason that I shall not cease to fix attention on the 
necessity of rejecting all half-measures, and of going straight to the 
proposed end by founding, without delay, an Association based upon 
the Serial order — an Association which, by furnishing a demonstration 
of Passional Harmony, will remove the philosophic cataract from the 
eyes of the human race, and raise all the nations of the globe — Civilized, 
Barbaric and Savage —to their social destiny, to Universal Unity. 


A NEW CURRENCY 


AND A NEW CREDIT SYSTEM. 

It is a universally received opinion that Gold and Silver are the 
true and natural Currency of mankind, predestined to be used as such; 
and that any departure from them is a departure from Nature and 
her laws. They even who advocate a paper currency, consider it merely 
as an extension of the metallic, as based upon it, and its representive; 
they also thus acknowledge the legitimacy and supremacy of gold and 
silver. It is time that this belief in the infallibility of the so-called pre¬ 
cious metals, this worship of gold, which is one of the superstitions of 
Political Economy, should come to an end. 

The Specie is an imperfect and in many respects a false Currency; 
it engenders great abuses and evils in the industrial system. A new 
Currency remains to be discovered and established,—a currency which 
rests on a scientific basis, and performs in a direct, economical and 
legitimate manner its most important function, namely, that of effecting 
the Exchange of Products. Gold and silver were resorted to as a cur¬ 
rency at an early period in history, when man was not capable of dis¬ 
covering and establishing a time representative sign of the products, 
labor and services, which he wished to exchange. They have been 
continued in use since, in part from habit and the want of inventive 
genius; in part from the impossibility of establishing a true currency 
in societies convulsed by wars and revolutions. The stability that now 
exists in the political and industrial systems of many nations would 
permit the establishment of a true currency : England might have es¬ 
tablished it a century since. 

We could prove (l priori , by adducing a law that governs the pro¬ 
gress of the human race, that a new Currency, differing from the me¬ 
tallic, remains to be discovered ; but as such proof would have little 
weight, we will merely indicate it, and for the purpose of showing that 
there are theoretical as well as practical reasons for believing in. a 
monetary reform. The d priori proof is this : 





CURRENCY. 


229 


Man, endowed with Reason, with the power of thought and combi¬ 
nation, must invent or discover for himself the means and instrumen¬ 
talities which he employs ill his industrial labors and operations. The 
animal, for example, is on the contrary supplied by Nature with what¬ 
ever it requires for its wants ; it is covered with a clothing of fur, 
hair, etc., which she furnishes it; it digs its hole with its claws, which 
are its natural tools, and constructs its cell from instinct without the 
aid of thought or science. It makes, however, no progress, no improve¬ 
ment ; it is not endowed with the power of creating; it is not an in¬ 
dependent or self-sufficing intelligence. Man, on the other hand, is 
an intellectual Creator; and his elevation, dignity and progress are 
dependent on this power which is given him. It causes him priva¬ 
tion and suffering in the beginning of his social career on the earth, 
before he has discovered the means he requires to satisfy his varied wants, 
but it is the source of the high degree of elevation which he ulti¬ 
mately attains. In the early phases of his career, in his social-infancy, 
before he is able to invent and create for himself, Nature supplies him 
to a certain extent — something as she does the animal—with the 
means which he requires in his daily life and labors, and which are 
necessary to his progress and development. She gives him the horse 
and the camel as a means of travel, and with a slight effort of rea¬ 
son, he opens roads on the surface of the ground ; these are his prim¬ 
itive means of transportation. At a later period, when he has acquired 
experience and perfected the mechanic arts and the sciences, he cre¬ 
ates the scientific means of travel, — the locomotive and railway. Thus 
we have in the beginning the instrumentality furnished by Nature, the 
horse ; and at a later period, the instrumentality created by reason, 
the locomotive. This rule applies to all the instrumentalities which 
man employs ; Nature furnishes or instinct suggests to him rude and 
simple instruments which answer for a time. Instinct suggests, for 
example, the canoe ; science, or the accumulated thought and experi¬ 
ence of ages, creates the steamship; the former suggests the bow and 
arrow ; the latter discovers the rifle and the bomb ; the former sug¬ 
gests the dial; the latter invents the watch ; the one, the sickle and 
flail; the other, the reaping and threshing machines; the one, the 
needle ; the other, the sewing machine. 

This law, which appears to be a general one, applies to gold and 
silver as a currency. Man finds these metals ready to his hands; Na¬ 
ture furnishes them to him, and as he finds them adapted to the pur- 


230 


CURRENCY. 


pose of a currency, he uses them as such. They answer the purpose 
in many respects, but they contain also great defects. They are not 
suited to a state of Society in which Industry is prosecuted on a vast 
scale ; no more than the horse is suited to the immense demands of 
travel which now exist. 

As society progresses more slowly in political and social improve¬ 
ments than in those of a material nature, like the mechanic arts, man 
still uses the metallic currency furnished him by Nature ; he has not 
discovered the true or scientific currency , as he has the true horse, 
the true sickle, the true needle. A slight deviation from the old me¬ 
tallic currency is to be found in the modern system of paper money, 
but it does not constitute a true Currency; it possesses the delects of 
the metallic, with some of them increased in degree. 

They who can follow Laws and have confidence in them, may be 
convinced by the fact alone that Nature having supplied man with 
the metallic currency, it can not be the true and final one: he must 
create one for himself; if he does not, he falls to the rank of a crea¬ 
ture of instinct, using means supplied to him by Nature without 
thought or invention on his part. 

As this train of reasoning will probably be but slightly satisfactory 
to most persons, the proof of the falseness of the specie currency must 
be supported by clear and practical demonstrations. We will prove 
then practically its falseness ; first, by pointing out the abuses which it 
engenders; and second, by explaining the conditions which a true 
Currency should fulfill. 

Before entering upon the subject, we will examine briefly what 
Money is, the function it performs, and the various substances of which 
it may be made. 

Money is a sign, used by general consent, to represent the pro¬ 
ducts, labor and services which men wish to exchange with each other. 
Briefly defined, it is the representative sign of products, and the me¬ 
dium for effecting their exchange. As products can not be exchanged 
without great inconvenience for each other, — a load of hay for example 
for a coat, a bale of cotton for a watch, — some sign, which represents 
them all, and which the entire community recognizes and accepts, is 
absolutely necessary. 

Any article or substance may be used for and may serve the pur¬ 
pose of Money, which is accepted by a people as such, and is sanc¬ 
tioned by law; it is thus a thing of artificial and conventional creation. 


CURRENCY. 


231 


As proof of this, we see that a great variety of articles and substances 
have in different countries and at different times served the purpose 
of money. Among savage tribes, arrows, shells and furs are used ; in 
Tartary, pressed cakes of tea, as Adam Smith remarks, and in Abys¬ 
sinia salt are the medium of exchange. In ancient Greece, before gold 
and silver were employed, the ox was probably the standard by which 
the value of other products were estimated, and was the money of the 
time ; the first gold coin bore the impress of an ox’s head and was 
called an ox, thus taking the name of the old standard. Arcliilles’ 
shield cost, says Homer, a hundred oxen. In ancient Rome copper 
bars were the currency ; and in Carthage, leather. At the present 
day, paper is widely used, and in this country since the breaking out 
of the civil war, it has entirely taken the place of gold and silver. 
It is a more convenient currency than the metallic, as it is lighter and 
more easily transported ; could means be found to regulate properly 
its issues and render it secure, it would be preferable to gold and 
silver. Thus we see that any material may serve the purpose of 
money, provided it is universally accepted by a community and sanc¬ 
tioned by law. 

Money is a measure of Value ; it is the standard or measure by 
which the relative value of all products are determined; it thus en¬ 
ables men to compare their products with each other and determine 
the basis on which to exchange them. Money in itself has no real 
value ; it performs a secondary function, that of facilitating the ex¬ 
change of products which labor creates, but if there were no products 
to be exchanged, money would be wholly useless ; products on the 
contrary would retain an intrinsic value, even were there no money 
to exchange them. Place a man on a desert island with tons of 
gold and silver, and his fancied treasures would be useless to him ; it 
is only on condition that the island is inhabited and industry* prose¬ 
cuted, that his money obtains a value; he then can exchange it for 
the products he requires. Money consequently is not real wealth, but 
merely the sign of it; real wealth consists in the products of labor. 
Gold and silver have, as metals , it is true, an intrinsic value, as they 
can be employed for many useful purposes, for plate, jewelry, etc., but 
when coined into money they lose that value, and have no more than 
the small pieces of paper on which bank notes are printed. The popu¬ 
lar notion that money is real wealth, because it can be exchanged for 
it and obtain it in exchange, is a superficial error; the only real 


232 


CURRENCY. 


wealth, as we said, consists in the products of human labor, physical 
and intellectual, which ministers to man’s wants and comforts, to his 
progress and elevation. The exchange of products, which money facili¬ 
tates, is a secondary and collateral function, dependent on the creation 
of products ; some sign or representative must be used, and any may 
be employed which is universally accepted ; it is thus common consent, 
sanctioned or ratified by law, which creates money. As this common 
consent costs nothing and has no value, that which it creates can 
have no value. 

The following are the points which we have briefly indicated, and 
which are to be borne in mind in examining the possibility of creat¬ 
ing a new currency. 

1. Money is a sign, and nothing more, which is used to represent 
the products, labor and services that men desire to exchange with 
each other. 

2. Its function is to facilitate the exchange of products by furnish¬ 
ing a sign that represents them all, and is a measure of value by 
which the exchange can be regulated. 

3. It may be made of any material that is convenient to handle, 
easily divisible, etc. 

4. It is not real wealth, but the representative of it. 

We find in the history of every people a period prior to that in 
which gold and silver were used, and in which some other material 
was employed as the currency. As the human race progressed, and 
different countries began to exchange with each other, a more univer¬ 
sal medium of exchange became necessary. Gold and silver were by 
instinct adopted, as they were the best material for the purpose that 
Nature offered man. These metals are not perishable, not subject to 
rust and decay, are divisible into small parts, and are agreeable to 
handle ; but above all, they are scarce, so that the quantity can not be 
suddenly or arbitrarily increased, inflated or contracted. It is these 
qualities, not any mysterious attribute inherent in the two metals that 
fit them for money ; it was convenience, not predestination, as the wor¬ 
ship of gold implies, that led men to employ them. 

Gold and silver, then, are the currency furnished the human race 
by Nature, to be employed provisionally by it until it establishes a 
stable industrial state, discovers the laws that should govern money, 
and is in a condition to create a true currency. They possess, as 
money, certain properties, which prevent numerous abuses and disor- 



CURRENCY. 


ders in an imperfect industrial system, like that which has existed in 
the past, and still exists to a certain extent in the present. Their 
most important property, that of scarcity, which regulates the amount 
of currency in circulation, secures order, regularity and stability in the 
circulating medium, and in industry, as far as the influence of the cur¬ 
rency extends ; this is a most important point to be attained. They 
are also imperishable, so that if their scarcity prevents sudden infla¬ 
tions, their non-perishable character prevents sudden destruction, and 
consequent contractions of currency. Thus artificial expansions and 
contractions, and the derangements and disorders to which they give 
rise, are prevented. No king, no ruler, however powerful or selfish he 
may be, can inflate the specie currency ; Nature maintains order in 
this department of human affairs in spite of man. Had human power 
been able in the past to control the currency, how continually would 
it have' been inflated beyond all natural limits, and with these infla¬ 
tions, the relations of property, values and prices deranged, and the 
industrial operations of nations thrown into confusion. Nature, in sup¬ 
plying man with a currency, preserves an order and stability which he 
can not; she puts, while he is acquiring the experience necessary to en¬ 
able him to discover a true currency for himself, and to regulate with 
wisdom his industrial system, a veto on his ignorance and selfish¬ 
ness. Man, however, should not be the slave of Nature ; he should 
not look to her to direct and govern him ; he should not be com¬ 
pelled to be wise and just He should look to himself; he should 
create by his own reason all the instrumentalities he employs. 

With these preliminary remarks, we will enter upon the examina¬ 
tion of the subject from a practical point of view. We will analyze 
the defects of the Specie currency and the evils and abuses to which 
it gives rise, and in a manner that will be easily understood, and, 
we trust, convincing. 

The fundamental defect of the Specie Currency, that from which 
nearly all others spring, is this: 

It is a currency that can be monopolized and controlled by a 
few individuals, and be made in their hands an instrument by which 
to govern the industrial system, a means of speculation, usury and 
spoliation. Like all monopolies, it falls under the control of a small 
minority, who with its aid rule labor and its interests to suit their own 
purposes. 


234 


CURRENCY. 


DEFECTS OF THE SPECIE CURRENCY. 

1. It is an expensive Currency, as it costs a vast amount of labor 
to mine, work and mint the metals of which it is composed. This ex¬ 
pense is useless, as it could be saved by employing a material like 
paper, that qpsts comparatively nothing. 

2. It withdraws from the arts two valuable metals, which couid 
be employed most usefully in other ways. 

3. It is an arbitrary and fictitious Currency, for, instead of represent¬ 
ing the products of industry and other exchangeable values, which it 
is the function of a true Currency to do, it represents the value only 
of the two metals of which it is composed. 

4. It circulates independent of the products and values which it 
should represent; it has an existence independent of them, which a 
true currency should not have, and can be employed in a manner op¬ 
pressive to industry. 

5. It is a Monopolizahle Currency ; that is, it can be concentrated 
in the hands of, and controlled by a few capitalists, bankers, mer¬ 
chants and financial operators who, controlling it without any restric¬ 
tion, employ it in speculation, monopoly, stock gambling, usury and 
innumerable schemes of fraud aud spoliation. This monopoly and con¬ 
trol of the currency by indix'Aduals and corporations is a violation of a 
fundamental law of the true Currency, which is that it should be under 
the control of the collective Interest , and be regulated entirely accord¬ 
ing to the requirements of productive Industry. This fifth characteris¬ 
tic gives rise to most of those which follow. (It will be borne in mind 
that what we say of the specie currency applies to our present paper 
money, which is but an extension of it.) 

6. It gives to Capital the control of Labor and its interests; it en¬ 
ables it to fix to a great extent the rate of wages, to give or withhold 
employment, and to determine the rates of rent of lands and houses. 

7. It gives to Banks and Bankers the control of Credit and the 
issues of Currency, which enables them to spoliate the industry of 
countries by usury, to give or withhold the facilities necessary to effect 
the exchange of products, to expand or contract the circulating medi¬ 
um, and, in so doing, to stimulate and depress alternately trade and 
industry, producing constantly revulsions and disasters. 

8. It gives to the Commercial Classes.the control of the Exchange 
of products, which enables them to fix fictitious and arbitrary prices, 
to charge large profits, to monopolize and adulterate products as they 


CURRENCY. 235 

pass through their hands, and to practice innumerable frauds in the 
industrial world. 

9. It is the source of Interest and Usury. They who have the mo¬ 

nopoly and control of the Currency can, in loaning it, charge for 
its use: this charge is called Interest and Usury — the former when 
the rate is fixed by law 5 the latter when it exceeds that rate ; but in¬ 
terest and usury are in principle the same thing: namely, the price 

paid for the use of money. The tendency of the monopolists of the 
currency being constantly to charge high prices for the use of money, 
governments interfere and fix the rate which is then called Legal In¬ 
terest. If governments would create and control the currency, and 

charge for the use of it just enough to cover the cost of issue and 

management, the principle of interest could be abolished, and that of 
cost of management established in its place. 

10. It flows into the large cities, where it is employed in commer¬ 
cial and financial speculations, and in gambling in stocks and the pub¬ 
lic funds. It is thus withdrawn from industry, and especially from 
agriculture, that most important iuterest of society, which vegetates 
miserably for the want of it. 

11. It prevents to a certain extent a free and untrammeled ex¬ 
change of products, and for the reason that before products can be 
exchanged with each other, they must first be converted into money ; 
as they who control the currency may refuse to buy, or may impose 
onerous conditions, it follows that the exchange of products, that is, pur¬ 
chases and sales, are more or less trammeled, often even prevented. 
Under a true Currency the owner of products would at all times be 
able to obtain the monetary representative of them, and with it buy 
others, that is, exchange them. 

12. It gives to the Banker the power of refusing Credit, and to the 
Merchant the power of refusing to buy. If for any reason — from 
fear of political commotions, short crops, revulsions, war, etc.—they 
choose to exercise their power, they can arrest all business operations, 
paralize Industry, produce wide-spread disasters, and convulse industri¬ 
ally a whole country. 

13. It enables Capital to live without labor ; and by means of In¬ 
terest, commercial Profits and Rent, to accumulate in its hands the 
•wealth of society. It is the despotic power in the industrial system, 
as was the sword in the old military system ; they who wield it are 
the masters of Industry. 



236 


CURRENCY. 


14. It inverts the true order of things in human society, for it cre¬ 
ates those influences which render Idleness honorable and Labor dis¬ 
honorable, by enabling a privileged few who accumulate the wealth 
which Industry produces, to live in idle ease, avoiding and despising 
labor, while the laboring classes live and toil in poverty and ignorance. 

15. It is indirectly the Source of the Rental system. As money 
draws interest when loaned, it should, when invested in houses, draw 
rent. As a general rule, rents in different countries are proportioned 
to the rates of interest. Under the rental system, labor pays perpet¬ 
ually for the use of capital (which is simply accumulated labor) with¬ 
out ever obtaining the ownership of it.* 

Such are the leading defects of the specie Currency and the paper 
based upon it. We will now point out the leading characteristics 
which a true currency should possess, and the conditions it should 
fulfill. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF A TRUE CURRENCY. 

1 . It should be made of some cheap material, one that costs com¬ 
paratively nothing. As money is merely the representative of wealth, 
it is not necessary that it should possess intrinsic value in itself, as do 
gold and silver. Our paper currency illustrates the possibility of 
using a material for money that costs a mere trifle ; it thus fulfills 
one condition of a true currency, but it is not to be inferred from 
this that it is the true currency. Men go to the ends of the earth to 
obtain at great expense two metals to be employed as money, when , 
any material under their hands would answer the purpose equally 
as well. 

2. It should be created and issued under the supervision of gov- i 
ernments, and managed in the interests of productive Industry, which, 
as the sole source of wealth, should be the first object of protection 

----— j 

* A house that has required, for example, a thousand days’ labor to build, or has 
cost fifteen hundred dollars, — allowing the day’s labor to be worth one dollar and fifty 
cents. — is rented, we will suppose, at one hundred and fifty dollar’s a year ; the rentee 
thus gives one hundred days’ labor each year for the use of the house, and continues 
this for years, until he has paid in labor the original amount of labor which was required 
to build the house ; he owns, however, at the end of the time ho part of it, while the 
owner of the house owns his thousand days’ labor, with which he can build another 
and rent it in the same manner. The rental system is evidently false in principle. 

If interest were abolished, the rental system would follow it, and be replaced by a sys¬ 
tem of Payments in installments. 








CURRENCY. 


237 


and encouragement. Governments reserve to themselves the exclusive 
exercise of one right connected with money, that of coining it; why 
not reserve the exercise of all others, and thus prevent the control of 
the currency and its consequent abuse, by individuals and corporations. 

3. It should represent exactly what money ought to represent,— 
namely, the products of industry, which require to be exchanged. 
The Specie currency represent only itself, that is, the value which 
coinage and the properties of the metals of which it is composed give 
it, not the products that seek exchange and circulation. 

4. It should be loaned without Interest—at the bare cost of man¬ 
agement. As governments would have no motive to speculate in the 
Currency and make of it an instrument of extortion and spoliation as 
have individuals, they would loan it at a mere nominal rate. Thus 
the Principle of Interest, — that is, the arbitrary and speculative price 
now paid for the use of money, — would be abolished, and be replaced 
by the only just one — the cost of creation and management. 

5. It should be loaned on such Security as will furnish a true ba¬ 
sis of Credit, — that is, security that will guarantee both the safety of 
the currency, and regulate the amount to be put in circulation. This 
security will consist in the products of industry, annually produced 
and exchanged. The basis of credit is at present personal security or 
the endorsed notes of supposed responsible individuals : this system 
gives rise, first, to excessive and irregular issues of currency ; and, 
second, places credit almost wholly at the disposal of the speculating 
and commercial classes, shutting it out from the great body of pro¬ 
ducers. 

6 . It should be redeemable in Products , not in Specie ; it should 
purchase all products, all kinds of property, be a legal tender and re¬ 
ceivable for taxes and other government dues ; it would thus serve 
every purpose and function of money. Gold and silver would be set 
aside as a currency, classed with other products, and be valuable only 
in the useful arts. 

7. It should secure credit at all times to the producers and own¬ 
ers of products, and furnish the means necessary to effect their ex¬ 
change and the other legitimate business operations of society ; it would 
thus maintain a regular and uninterrupted movement in the industrial 
system. 

8 . It should expand with production — that is, with the increase 
in the amount of products to be exchanged ; and it should contract 


238 


CURRENCY. 


with Consumption —that is, with the withdrawal of products from cir¬ 
culation for the purpose of being consumed. The true Standard by 
which the amount of currency in circulation should be regulated, is 
the amount of exchanges to be effected. 

9. It should lead in an indirect manner to the investment in use¬ 
ful and productive enterprises of all surplus capital. As the abolish¬ 
ing of interest on money would abolish interest on notes, mortgages, 
etc., capital would not be hoarded and employed for purposes of in¬ 
terest and usury; it could only be rendered productive by being 
invested in useful industrial enterprises. This change of policy would 
increase greatly the wealth of a country. 

10. It would abolish interest on all notes of hand, bills of ex¬ 
change, drafts, and, in fact, all payments in the future ; if the currency 
did not draw interest, they would not. What an immense burthen 
would be lifted from the industry and business of a country, if such a 
reform could be effected, if a system of Cheap Credit were inaugu¬ 
rated. It would save to the industry of the United States alone some 
hundreds of millions annually. 

11. It would abolish the Rental system and replace it by payments 
in installments. Houses draw rent because money draws interest 5 if 
the money invested in the houses was retained and loaned, it would 
produce a certain amount of income 5 it must do the same if invested 
in a house. Now, with the aid of a true Currency, a credit system could 
be established by means of which payments for large amounts of pro¬ 
perty could be made in installments ; this would facilitate the purchase 
and sale of houses, farms, etc. Under such a system, every family 
would in time become the owner of a house, for each pays in the 
course of years rent enough to buy a homestead. 

The two tables we have given, in which the characteristics of the 
two Currencies are contrasted, will convince, we think, reflecting minds 
that there are substantial grounds for believing that the Specie curren¬ 
cy is a false one, and that a true Currency remains to be discovered. 

We will now explain briefly the manner in which the Currency we 
propose could be created. It could be created in two ways, by Gov¬ 
ernments, or by an Association of producers, interested in the establish¬ 
ment of equity and economy in the industrial system. If the initiation 
is taken by the former, it might be by the Government of one of the 
States of the Union, or with great advantage by that of a country like 
Italy or Spain, whose industry stands in need of encouragement. 


I 


CURRENCY. 239 

Lot us suppose it undertaken by one of the States of the Union ; 
the method of proceeding would be as follows : 

The State Government would establish a central Bank at the capi¬ 
tal or its commercial metropolis, which would be provided with all the 
means necessary to prepare the new Currency, and with an organiza¬ 
tion for registering and issuing it. It would organize Banks in the 
different business centers of the State, which would receive the cur¬ 
rency from the central Bank and loan it to the public. 

The new Currency should be made of a cheap and convenient ma¬ 
terial. As paper fulfills these conditions and the people are accustomed 
to it, the currency would be made to resemble our present paper 
money. It would be furnished the local Banks in amounts propor¬ 
tioned to the business wants of their localities, and would be loaned in 
a manner which we shall presently describe. 

In connection w r ith each local Bank, a large Warehouse or Depot, 
properly constructed and arranged for the reception and storage of the 
staple products of the country, would be erected. The producers and 
owners of products would store them in these Warehouses, receiving 
certificates of deposit, stating the quantity and the quality.. With these 
certificates as collateral security, they could obtain loans from the 
Bank. About three-quarters of the value of the products deposited would 
be the amount loaned. The Banks would act as agents or factors for the 
sale of the products. Samples from all the local warehouses would be 
kept at the general depot, located at the commercial center of the 
State. Sales could be made at the latter from these samples, as at the 
former points. Owners would direct when such sales should take 
place. These Warehouses would soon replace the numerous little store¬ 
houses of individuals ; they would become the great centers of the 
commercial operations of the country, the medium through which the 
exchange of the bulk of products would be effected. The present ir¬ 
responsible and arbitrary commercial system, which permits individuals 
to control the exchange of products, to speculate upon and spoliate 
productive industry, would come to an end —at least as regards the 
staple products of the country. A fine illustratiqn would thus be fur¬ 
nished of what could be done, if the entire commercial system were 
conducted on principles of equity and economy. 

The management of the Banks would be simple and economical: 
a cashier, teller and book-keeper would be all that would be required 
in most cases. The Banks would charge on loans just enough, as we 


240 


CURRENCY. 


stated, to cover the cost of management, which would not exceed one 
per cent, per annum. 

Loans would not be made on promissory notes, however well en¬ 
dorsed ; they furnish, first, no true standard for the amount of Curren¬ 
cy to be put in circulation ; and, second, they give rise to bad debts, 
favoritism, speculation, financial mismanagement, and to inflations and 
contractions, which lead in turn to commercial disasters. 

Loans would be made only on the security of products—and on 
staple products, the sale and consumption of which are considered cer¬ 
tain.* They would be made, first, on products stored in the ware¬ 
houses ; second, on bills of lading of products in transit; third, on pro¬ 
ducts which are ordered and are in process of creation, the acceptance 
and payment of which are guaranteed. Loans made on any other 
conditions would not be perfectly safe : the Currency would not have 
a sound and secure basis on which to rest 5 above all, no standard 
would exist, we repeat , by which to regulate the amount of issues ; the 
true standard being the amount of exchanges of products to be effected. 

Such, at the commencement, should be the regulating principle to 
be followed ; at a later .period, when order and method were intro¬ 
duced into the industrial system, the basis of credit could be extend¬ 
ed and modified. Labor—which is the primary source of production 
and of value — would be made the basis and standard. But as it 
would first be necessary to determine and fix the Value of Labor, and 
as this has not been done, the tangible embodiment, the product of 
labor, must be taken in its place. 

When the products of a borrower are sold, the proceeds of the sale 
would go into the Bank. The amount of the loan, together with the 
charge for the use of the currency, would be deducted and retained, and 
the surplus paid to him ; the operation will then be closed. 

As we stated, a general Sample Office for the sale of all the pro¬ 
ducts of the State would be established at the commercial center ; and 
States distant from the seaboard might have one at some large seaport, 
like New York, Boston or New Orleans. The system could even be 


* It is use or consumption that gives value to a product; it is valueless, it is as if it 
had not been created, if it does not find a purchaser and consumer. A shoemaker, for 
example, may make a pair of boots, but if no one buys and uses them, it is as if they had 
not been made ; value then is determined by consumption. The new Currency must be 
based on security that is perfectly safe, that is, on products the demand for which is cer¬ 
tain. 



CURRENCY. 


241 


extended to foreign countries, and sample offices organized in their 
great marts. For example, it would be very easy for a cotton State to 
have such offices in Liverpool and Havre, ship to them and sell di¬ 
rect to foreign manufacturers, thus saving the expense of intermediate 
transhipments, storages and cartages, and the profits paid to home and 
foreign shippers, brokers and speculators. Could Italy, which is now 
entering upon a new political career, and is in a position to innovate, 
organize Credit and foreign Commerce on this plan, — establishing, for 
example, a large sample office and commercial depot at New York, — 
what an immense advantage it would be for its own Industry, and, 
we may add, for the American buyer at the same time. The com¬ 
merce of Italy with this country is now carried on by driblets, and in 
a miserable manner by a few individuals, whose only aim is to spoli¬ 
ate both producer and consumer. 

Such, briefly stated, is the plan we propose. As simple as it may 
appear, it contains the principles of an entirely new Currency and a 
new Credit system, — one that differs radically in its nature and in the 
results it would produce from the present currency. To exhibit this 
more clearly, let us examine the basis of the three currencies — the 
Specie, the present Paper, and the new Currency which we propose. 

The Specie currency is: — 1. Furnished man by Nature without 
thought or invention on his part. 2. Its adaptation to the purposes of 
money is determined by the scarcity of the metals of which it is com¬ 
posed ; if they ■were as common as iron, they could not be used; gov¬ 
ernments would, at every great war, inflate the currency beyond all 
bounds and destroy it. 3. The amount in circulation is fluctuating and 
uncertain, as it can be withdrawn and hoarded. 4. It is invariably 
monopolized and controlled by a few wealthy individuals and corpo¬ 
rations, who employ it in the great majority of cases, either directly 
or indirectly, to spoliate Industry, instead of aiding and encourag¬ 
ing it. 

Our present paper Currency is: — 1. Created by a few individuals, 
incorporated as Banks, who use it for their individual benefit. 2. It is 
made to serve the purpose of money, because it is supposed to be the 
representative of specie and redeemable in it. 3. The amount thrown 
into circulation depends on the judgment of bank directors; this 
amount can be at any time greatly expanded or contracted. The fourth 
feature is like that of the specie currency. 

The true Currency should: — 1. Be created by human reason, guided 
11 


242 


CURRENCY. 


by a knowledge of the laws that govern money, — not furnished by Na¬ 
ture, nor created by individuals ignorant of those laws, and impelled 
solely by motives of self-interest. 2. It should be made to serve the 
purpose of money by being rendered the exact representative of the 
products of industry and other values which require to be exchanged. 
3. It should always be kept in exact equilibrium with the amount of 
genuine legitimate business transactions required by the industry of 
the country ; its issues should be determined by the amount of ex¬ 
changes to be made. 4. It should be under the control of govern¬ 
ment or of some power that would regulate it strictly according to 
the laws that govern money. 

These few comparisons are sufficient to show the essential difference 
that exists between the three Currencies. 

Let us now see how the plan we have proposed fulfills the con¬ 
ditions laid down in the second table. 

1. It will create a Currency that costs little or nothing. 2. A Cur¬ 
rency that will represent exactly the products of industry, as for every 
dollar issued, there is a product behind it of equal value. 3. It will 
abolish all control of the Currency by individuals, and the great abuses 
to which such control now' gives rise. 4. It will abolish interest 
5. Abolish the rental system by abolishing interest. 6. It will secure 
credit at all times to production, and refuse it to speculation. 7. It 
will furnish a Currency that will always be adequate to and in equi¬ 
librium with the business operations of the country, expanding with 
production and contracting with consumption. 8. It w r ill secure per¬ 
fect regularity in the issues of the Currency, and prevent those arti¬ 
ficial inflations and contractions, which are now the cause of so many 
disasters. 9. It will take the control of Credit out of the hands of in¬ 
dividuals and corporations, and free the industrial and business worlds 
from the powers that now rule them. 10. It will furnish an exact 
standard for the issues of Currency, at present regulated by the deci¬ 
sions of Bank officers. 

We pointed out one mode by which the new Currency could be 
created ; we will indicate the second mode to which w# referred. 

A body of men engaged in production and transportation ; that is, 
in the legitimate operations of Industry, and opposed from interest to 
the incoherence that now exists in the industrial world—arising from 
commercial speculation and monopoly, and the arbitrary control of the 
currency — could combine and establish a Bank and issue a Currency 


CURRENCY. 


243 


on the plan proposed. The Association would establish, in connection 
with the Bank, depots at one or more points for the reception of pro¬ 
ducts, and would systematize a proper and safe plan for loaning on 
the security of products. The Bank would issue its currency as Cer¬ 
tificates of deposit of products, and in the shape of onr bank bills. 
Proper guards would be established for preventing any issues of cer¬ 
tificates without the security of products. If the men at the head of 
the enterprise inspired confidence, and the stockholders were person¬ 
ally liable, or gave security for all issues, the certificates would soon 
obtain confidence, and circulate as money. Loans would be made to 
the members of the Association at the cost of management. If the 
first experiment succeeded, the system would spread rapidly and soon 
become general; it could then be brought under the supervision of 
government, and be sanctioned by law. 

There are other modes in which a true Currency might be created ; 
we leave the investigation of them to thinking minds. We do not 
pretend to lay down a definite and positive plan to be followed rigor¬ 
ously; we have merely suggested two modes in order to demonstrate 
the possibility of creating a true Currency, and to explain clearly the 
Principle on which it should be based. We are interested only in 
the Principle, not in the Mode of its realization. A few philanthropic 
men, animated by a sincere love of justice, and hating the commercial 
and financial debauchery that now reigns, might take the enterprise in 
hand ; or the United States Government might do it, using its present 
Custom House organizations as far as they go as centers of operation, 
and charging, as a means of revenue, three per cent, until the present 
war is over. It would not be as radical and bold a stroke as the 
Emancipation act. 

Before concluding, we would particularly draw the attention of the 
reader to two points connected with the present Currency. 

The first is its expensiveness : it is so costly that it devours itself 
by interest and usury once in every seven or eight years ; or in other 
words, it costs the people such a price for the use of it, that they pay 
its entire value in those periods of time. Let us explain this. The 
banks of the United States receive at least on an average eight per 
cent, per annum on their loans. If legal interest is but six or seven 
per cent., they obtain at a low estimate one or two per cent, more by 
premiums on drafts and by various other means. Now money loaned 
at eight per cent., and reloaned every two or three months, doubles it- 



CURRENCY. 


244 


self in about eight years, so that those who borrow, pay for the use of 
it a sum equal to its entire value in that time. In the Western States, 
where higher rates than in the Eastern rule, money doubles itself no 
doubt in seven, often in five and six years. To estimate the enormous 
tax paid by the business of the country for the use of a currency, let 
us adduce a single example. The loans of the banks of the three cities, 
New York, Philadelphia and Boston, have, during the course of the 
present year (1863 ) 7 amounted to nearly three hundred millions of 
dollars. If we suppose their loans made at seven per cent., and 
reloaned every three or four months, the business men of those cities 
must pay in ten years three hundred millions of dollars -for the use of 
the money and credit they require in their operations. What a vast and 
useless expenditure for that which need cost comparatively nothing. 

If, in addition to all the bank loans in the United States,* w'e could 
ascertain the total amount of all promissory notes given outside of the 
banks, of drafts, bills of exchange, bonds and mortgages, and accounts 
of every description drawing interest, we would be astounded at the 
gigantic sums absorbed annually in the payment of interest. As money 
draws interest, notes, drafts and other forms of indebtedness draw in¬ 
terest, so that the vast expenditure thus rendered necessary has its 
origin in a false Currency. 

To give some idea of the fabulous sums paid by a country for 
credit and the use of its currency, we will take a definite amount ; we 
will see what is paid, for example, for the use of one thousand dollars 
at different rates of interest; we can then appreciate more clearly the 
extent of what it must pay for thousands of millions. The mind is often 
lost when it deals with vast amounts. We will suppose the interest 
running for a long term of years, in order to exhibit more strongly 
the accumulations by interest and compound interest. 

One thousand dollars, loaned and reloaned every six months, accu¬ 
mulates in sixty years the following sums : 

At 1 per cent, it accumulates, - $1,824 

At 7 per cent.,. 71,898 


At 8 per cent., 
At 12 per cent., 


134,107 

1,677,481 


At 24 per cent., ------- 4,592,819,317 


* The number of Banks in the United States in 1860 was 1662 ; the amount of 
their loans $700,000,000. 





CURRENCY. 


245 


Two per cent, a month or twenty-four per cent, a year, is, in newly 
settled countries and in >£ hard times,” a very common rate of inter¬ 
est ; it is also paid often by persons who have not facilities for bor¬ 
rowing. Now one thousand dollars, could it be loaned systematically 
for sixty years, would pay the debt of England. The bare possibility 
of such a fact places in strong relief the absurdity and, we will adu, 
the iniquity of the principle of interest. Banks, Savings Banks and 
some other institutions loan and reloan for indefinite periods, so that 
the accumulations by compound interest really do take place. 

Is it not surprising that the Political Economists, who have made 
such minute investigations of the industrial system, have not discov¬ 
ered the radical imperfection of our present Currency, and the false¬ 
ness of Interest. Is it not evident that a Currency, which costs its 
entire value every seven or eight years for the use of it, is a frighfully 
expensive one , and that interest, by which this expense is incurred, is 
false and fictitious in principle ? Why should dead bits of metal or 
paper accumulate more without labor than the living and intelligent 
industry of human beings ? * 

The second point to which we would draw attention, is the power 
which the control of the currency and of credit gives to the commer¬ 
cial and banking classes. It enables the former to refuse credit ; and 

* It will be said : All these accumulations by interest go to some persons in society ; 
and as they who receive them spend them again, they are not lost. This is true, but 
how are they spent? The three-quarters, we answer, in useless luxuries, in extrava¬ 
gance, in frivolities, which reproduce nothing And are wasted. A small number of rich 
are the recipients of the wealth accumulated by interest. How do they live, and how 
much of their wealth is expended in a really useful and reproductive manner? A hun¬ 
dred thousand dollars invested in a house, built from a desire of display, a portion only 
of which is occupied, is in part a useless expenditure; a thousand dollars spent for a shawl, 
a hundred for a handkerchief, which are but little used, are like so much capital buried 
in the earth ; a thousand spent on a dinner, at which the guests drink to excess and are 
rendered unfit for business, is also lost; a thousand a mouth spent on a kept-mistress is 
again lost. It is the accumulations of Interest, combined with the profits of commerce, 
which maintain the useless luxuries, the extravagance, the frivolities and vices of our 
large cities; they reproduce nothing, leave nothing behind ; whereas the same wealth, 
devoted to agricultural improvements, to erecting manufactories, to scientific purposes, 
etc., would not be wasted, but remain and produce year after year an increase of riches 
and intelligence. We must distinguish between unproductive and productive expendi¬ 
tures ; the one is a loss, the other a gain. A man who digs a hole one day, and fills 
it up the next, produces nothing; the money paid him is lost; it he digs holes, and 
plants trees in them, he produces ; the money paid him not only remains, but reproduces 
itself. Now whatever portion of the accumulations by interest is spent uselessly and un- 
productix ely is lost t the portion, we estimate at a hall at least, and pet haps, three-quat- 
ters. 



246 


CURRENCY. 


the latter to refuse to make purchases. By exercising this power 
they can stop exchanges of products, arrest business operations and 

paralyze industry, producing in consequence artificial revulsions of a 

disastrous character. It is true that they do not exercise their power 
intentionally arid from sinister motives, but it is not the less true that, 
from various causes, they often do exercise it, and as often produce 
greater or less disorders in the industrial system. The revulsions which 
within the last thirty years have taken place, and swept hundreds of 
thousands into ruin, have all had their origin in the ignorant and ar¬ 
bitrary control by individuals of the currency and of exchanges. 

The plan we have sketched out will appear, on a cursory inspec¬ 
tion, very simple ; many persons will assert that it does not differ 
essentially from the present system — the only difference being that 
the present Currency is loaned by the Banks at 7 per cent., while the 
new Currency will be loaned by the State at 1 per cent. Let us cor¬ 
rect this error, and show that the two Currencies differ radically in 
principle; that applied on a large scale—to the industry of Nations — 
they must necessarily, after a certain lapse of time, produce results 
of a diametrically opposite character, and of the greatest magnitude. 
Two examples will be sufficient to explain this : 

1. The present Currency is loaned for the most part on personal 
security , that is, on endorsed notes. This places credit wholly at the 
disposal of a small minority of men in society — of merchants, specu¬ 
lators, monopolists, usurers and financial schemers — whose only aim 
and effort are to make the largest profits possible out of Industry, and 
to spoliate it by every means that human ingenuity can invent It 
gives to a small body of non-producers the entire control of the pro¬ 
ducing interests of society. 

Under the new Currency, loans would be made only on the secu- 
rity of products ; a note endorsed by a Rothschild or an Astor would 
not obtain a dollar of credit. Credit being thus secured to production, 
the producing classes could obtain the facilities they needed to effect 
exchanges. The Banks, through the warehouse organization, would act 
as their agents; they would by this means have the exchange of pro¬ 
ducts, and the control of their interests in their own hands. The 
whole system of commercial speculation and monopoly, of usury, and 
spoliation under all forms, would be overthrown ; the immense sums 
they now absorb — two-thirds of the profits of the industry of Nations — 
would be saved, and retained in the hands of the producers of wealth, 


CURRENCY. 


247 


to be applied to productive improvements. The era of commercial 
speculation, with its instability and revulsions, would be brought to a 
close, and the wealth and talent, now engaged in commerce and bank¬ 
ing, would be devoted to developing Industry on a vast scale. 

2 . The present Currency, drawing the high rates of interest which 
it does, accumulates through interest the immense sums we have 
pointed out. $1,000 loaned at 8 percent. — a less rate than our Banks 
on an average now obtain — accumulates in half a century, or in a 
long business life, about $60,000 over the original $1,000. Ten intelli¬ 
gent mechanics or fanners, laboring assiduously the same length of 
time, do not, as experience demonstrates, accumulate any such sum. 
Thus, $1,000 in the hands of a capitalist, can accumulate a greater 
amount of wealth than the labor of ten efficient men.* 

The new Currency, drawing 1 per cent., would accumulate, in the 
period above mentioned, about $700 over the original amount. Now 
as productive Industry creates all wealth, and in the end pays for 
everything, the difference, $.",0,300, would, if economized by means of a 
cheap currency, remain in its hands. What a gigantic impetus would 
-be given to industrial improvements and to the general progress of so¬ 
ciety, if the vast sums now absorbed by interest were devoted to really 
great and useful enterprises, and the capital created by them distribu¬ 
ted equitably and more generally among the producing classes. 

These two examples are sufficient to enable the reader to make 
further comparisons for liimself. If he will examine the subject care¬ 
fully, he will see that the two Currencies, based on exactly opposite 
principles, must, when they work out their ultimate effects, produce 
exactly opposite results. 

The one concentrates the property of Nations in the hands of a 
few. The other will disseminate it among the entire people. 

The one builds up everywhere an aristocracy of wealth. The other 
will create a wealthy, and, as a consequence, an educated and intelli¬ 
gent Democracy. 

The one gives rise to a limited demand for luxuries for the few, 
and for the commonest necessaries for the many. The other will give 


* It will be objected that the entire currency of a country is not reloaned at 
compound interest; that the income derived from interest is, for the most part, 
spent as received. If but a quarter or one-eighth is reloaned, it is sufficient to ab¬ 
sorb in time the property of a country, and concentrate it in the hands of a small 
minority. 



248 


CURRENCY. 


.rise to an unbounded demand for the necessaries and luxuries of life 
for all, as all will become consumers. 

The one places obstacles in the way of the development of Indus¬ 
try by limited consumption. The other will encourage Industry to the 
fullest extent by creating a universal demand for its products. 

The one is a source of servitude, monotony and dead routine in 
Industry, and of ignorance and stolidness on the part of the laboring 
classes. The other will impart the greatest energy and progress to 
Industry, and call out a new life and a new mental activity among 
the masses. 

The one creates populations of poor hired laborers, working for a 
few idle rich. The other will create Nations of wealthy producers, and 
develop intelligence to a high degree by the scientific prosecution of 
Industry. 

Other causes no doubt concur in producing the first named of these 
results; but our false Currency exercises so powerful an influence — 
an influence now not at all understood — that w'e leave them aside to 
concentrate attention on the main cause. 

We will explain again, and very concisely, the manner in which 
the results we have pointed out are produced by the present Cur¬ 
rency. The reader will thus have present before his mind a clear 
conception of the whole subject. 

The present Currency, controlled as it is by a few individuals 
in society, who can charge ad libitum for the use of it, gives rise to 
interest. 

Giving rise to Interest, it, in turn, gives rise to the Rental System. 

Being the means by which the Exchange of products is effected, 
it gives to those who possess or can borrow it, the control of Com¬ 
merce. 

Now r , Interest, Rents and commercial Profits are the means by 
which the wealth of society is concentrated in the hands of a few, and 
the other baneful results which flow from it, are brought about. Thus 
a monopolizable Currency, subservient to the interests of a small mi¬ 
nority, is the generating cause of an important class of social evils, of 
a state of monstrous Inequality in society. 

Let us show by an example, taken from the history of an ener¬ 
getic and industrious people, how much more rapidly wealth can be 
accumulated by Interest than by Industry and Intelligence. We will 
take our illustration from the increase of wealth in the State of Mas- 



CURRENCY. 249 

s-ichnsetts. No State or Nation has probably accumulated wealth mon? 
rapidly by Industry than this. 

The assessed value of property in Massachusetts was, in 1790, 
$44,024,000. Fifty years after, in 1840, it had increased to $299,880,- 
000 over the original amount. Now, had the original capital of the 
State been loaned at G per cent, and reloaned every six months, it 
would, in fifty years, have amounted to $929,548,000. or $885,525,000 
over the original sum.* Thus the Industry of Massachusetts accumu¬ 
lated in half a century two hundred and fifty-five millions, while the 
capital with which it started would, had it been loaned at G per cent., 
have accumulated in the same time eight hundred and eighty-five mil¬ 
lions. At 8 per cent. — and in Massachusetts how much capital must 
have yielded that rate of interest — it would have accumulated two 
thousand five hundred millions. 

These figures furnish the best criticism that can be offered of the 
Principle of Interest — of that monstrous Parasite, which lives on In¬ 
dustry, and exhausts it to nourish and support the idleness and lux¬ 
ury, the extravagance and the vices of a Civilization which, with its 
commercial and financial rapacity,'its money-mongering spirit, its prac¬ 
tice of injustice, bad faith and fraud, merits — not that adulation 
which sycophant writers now bestow upon it — but the condemnation 
of every mind that has a clear conception of social truth and justice, t 

Let us now sum up, and present in a few sentences the substance 
of what we have said in the preceding pages. 

* See Edward Kellog’s excellent work, entitled, “ Labor and other Capital.” 

f We will illustrate by a single example the privileges now conceded by legislation to 
wealthy individuals in permitting them to create a Currency. We will suppose that ten 
men of wealth establish a Bank with a capital of a million, each investing a hundred 
thousand. They pledge as security State stocks ; on these they receive interest, so that 
they incur no loss, make no sacrifice. They issue their promissory notes in the form of 
bank bills, that is, they create and issue paper money to the amount of a million. On 
these notes they pay no interest while they charge interest on the notes of those to whom 
they lend their own. Thus is established the principle of interest versus no interest. 
In such a system, no equation, consequently no justice exists. The corporation of ten 
men employ a few clerks to do the business of the Bank, so that they are relieved from 
afay labor, save that of exercising a general supervision, which is a pastime rather than 
a labor. Let us now examine the result. The ten wealthy men, having loaned and re¬ 
loaned their notes at, we will suppose, 7 per cent., at the end of eight years double their 
capital, that is, they receive in the shape of interest or dividends, a million of dol’ars. 
They have, without labor, without creating anything, amassed this vast amount of 
wealth. They invest, we will suppose, their million in real property—in property which 
has cost real labor. If labor is worth on an average a dollar a-day, they can buy with their 
profits a million of days’ labor. What have they given for all this toil i The use of 



250 


CURRENCY. 


The. experience of the past proves beyond all question that a great 
variety of materials may serve the purpose of Money, and be used as 
a circulating medium ; that consequently gold and silver are not indis¬ 
pensably requisite. 

It also proves that a Slate, Nation or Corporation can create and 
issue a Currency, and regulate its circulation. 

Now, with these facts before us, we ask : 

1. Would it not be a practicable, and even an easy operation for a 
State or Nation—provided the governing powers possessed the desire 
and the knowledge — to create a Currency, manage it economically, 
place it at the service of the producing interests, charge for the use 
of it the cost merely of management, and thus furnish at all times to 
the Nation cheap Credit and the necessary facilities for effecting the 
exchange of products ? 

2. Would it not also be possible for a body of intelligent men, 
forming a Board of Directors, to discover—if necessary by patient 
study and investigation — the true basis of credit , and also the true 


their good names, their reputation, a little easy work, which has been a pleasure rather 
than a serious exertion — in fact nothing. But, it will be answered, they give the pub¬ 
lic Credit; they lend it the use of their wealth, of their names. They give certain indi¬ 
viduals credit, it is true, taking what they believe to be ample security, so that equiva¬ 
lents are exchanged, with the advantage of interest on their side. As to the public, 
instead of giving it Credit, exactly the contrary is the case ; the public, in taking and 
circulating their notes, gives them credit, for which they pay nothing, while reaping from 
it the substantial advantages we have explained. The Rental System is no doubt false 
in principle — particularly as regards land, which is not created by human labor — as it 
gives the use only of property, while it takes in turn and retains forever the money or 
price it receives for such use ; but it is not as false as interest. A house that is worth 
$20,000 has cost probably as many days’ labor ; it possess therefore real value\ — for la¬ 
bor is the only real value, — and the owners in giving the use of it, gives the use of such 
value. But $20,000 of paper money can be created with from ten to twenty days’ labor, 
so that the public in paying $1,400 a year for the use of it, pays this sum for the use of 
that which costs, so to say, nothing. Two great means bj r which Social Progress and 
the improvement of the masses of mankind have been effected are, first, the abolition 
of Privileges, such as slavery and serfdom, the monopoly of real estate by aristocracies, 
the annulling of laws that favored particular classes ; second, the discovery of new Fa¬ 
cilities and the cheapening of Processes, such as the invention of machinery that in¬ 
creases greatly the product of labor, or of the railroad that supplants the stage coach 
and the old fashioned wagon, and cheapens travel and transportation. Now, let the 
privilege of creating Money be taken from individuals and corporations, and invested 
with the people collectively ; then let a system of Cheap Credit be established,— Credit 
that costs nothing, so to say, and is always at the service of productive Industry,— 
and another great and important means of progress and improvement will have been 
taken—one equal in inffuence to the steam engine and the railroad combined. 





CURRENCY. 


251 


standard by which to regulate the issues of the Currency, 'so as to 
render it perfectly safe and to maintain at all times an exact balance 
between the amount in circulation and the business wants of the com¬ 
munity ? 

Let these two conditions be fulfilled, and a true Currency with a 
true Credit system can be established, leading to one of the most im¬ 
portant practical reforms that the world has seen. 

If some fundamental changes, some new principles are not intro¬ 
duced into our Industrial system, the entire property of our country 
will, in a century more, pass into the hands of a small minority, form¬ 
ing a compact and powerful monied Oligarchy, ruling the Nation by 
the power of capital. This Oligarchy will organize all branches of In¬ 
dustry, as well as Commerce in joint stock companies, and will oper¬ 
ate through them, as they are the safest and easiest method of prose¬ 
cuting extensive enterprises ; it will engage in its service the active 
minds, the men of talent that are poor, who will thus be enlisted in 
its cause ; it will suborn the press, which will direct and, if neces¬ 
sary, mislead public opinion ; it will control legislation by determining 
the choice of legislators, who will enact laws to suit its policy ; the 
pulpit will become the exponent of its morality, the fundamental dog¬ 
ma of which will be : Respect for Property ; the judiciary will, as it 
always has done, follow the spirit and policy of the dominant power. 
We shall then see a comparatively small number of immensely wealthy 
families at the apex of the social pyramid, and at the base a vast mul¬ 
titude of poor poletarian laborers, toiling in poverty, ignorance and en¬ 
tire dependence to create the wealth which supports a monstrous 
system of idleness and luxury, of extravagance and frivolity, of pride 
and usurpation. Let such an Oligarchy be once fairly consolidated, 
and it will require- ages of effort to overcome it, as it has required 
in Europe ages to overcome — and the work is not yet completed — 
the military Oligarchy established at the beginning of the Middle 
Ages. 

A true Currency, destroying the power of Capital to absorb by usury 
and monopoly the wealth of the world, and to control Industry, will 
arrest the tendency which has now so strongly set in toward the es¬ 
tablishment of a monied Oligarchy such as described; and in the 
place will inaugurate a movement towards the creation of an Indus¬ 
trial Republic, based on the intelligence and prosperity of the en¬ 
tire people. 


252 


CURRENCY. 


One statement more. In Antiquity, and during the course of the 
Middle Ages, physical force, symbolized by the sword, controlled 
Labor and the destinies of the classes engaged in it. The producers 
were slaves or serfs, owned by a small minority, generally of the mili¬ 
tary caste. The entire product of their labor was taken by their own¬ 
ers, from whom they received in return the merest necessaries of physical 
life. No education, no political rights, no social privileges for these 
men ; they were mere human beasts of burden. At length the princi¬ 
ples of Physical force, the power of the Sword, was broken ; Slavery 
and Serfdom — at least of the whites — were abolished, and the labor¬ 
ing classes obtained their corporeal or personal liberty. But a new 
power has arisen in modern times,' and by indirect means controls as 
effectually, though not as brutally as did the old power, Labor and the 
Laboring Classes. This new power is that of Capital. Owning—as 
it does in older countries and as it will after a lapse of time in all 
countries—the soil, manufactories, mines, railroads and other instruments 
of production, it is master of Labor which can not operate -without them. 
Then, by means of interest and usury, of rent, commercial profits, and 
the profits made on labor by employers, it secures for itself the main 
portion of the product of Labor, of the wealth it creates, leaving to the 
laboring classes but the bare means of existence ; the condition of the 
people in all old and populous countries attests this fact Thus is es¬ 
tablished the modern system of industrial spoliation and oppression — a 
system which, in nations -where a thick population creates on the part 
of the working classes a fierce competition for labor, sinks those classes 
into a state of poverty, dependence and social degradation almost as 
great as that entailed on the laborer by the old system. The poor 
Hireling, without property, but who owns himself, seeking for a pre¬ 
carious and scantily remunerated labor, has taken the place of the 
slave and the serf, who owned not even themselves; it is a progress, 
but not, let us hope, the end of progress. 

Now, a true Cutrency— the Currency of labor, of justice, of the 
people — will be one of the instrumentalities by which the modern 
system of industrial privilege and spoliation will be overthrown, and 
by which a radical Industrial Reform will be effected — a Reform 
that offers the only practical means of elevating the Laboring classes, 
who compose the great body of the people, to a state of prosperity, in¬ 
dependence, intelligence and social equality—a high and noble end to 
be attained, and one that should interest every Man who loves Justice. 


PART SECOND. 


CONCRETE THEORY. 










TABLE OF CONTENTS 


PART SECOND. 

Chap. 

I. Economies of Association in Granaries, Dairies, Wine- 

cellars, Fuel and Transportation,. 

II. Division of the Economies of Association into Generic 

and Potential,. 

III. Enormous Relative Profits of Association, 

1Y. Compound Economies; increase of Production in vari¬ 
ous Degrees,. 

Y. Elementary Description of the Series in their Applica¬ 
tion to Industry,. 

YI. Number of Members, and their Distribution, 

VII. The three Distributive Passions, or the Organic Forces 

of the Series,. 

VIII. Three Effects in the Serial Organization, corresponding 
to the three Distributive Passions, .... 

IX. Imperfect Series ; Correctives to be applied,. 

X. Preparations for a Practical Trial of Association, 

XI. Internal Administration ; Investment of Capital, . 

XII. The Palace of the Association : its Internal Distribution, 

XIII. Agricultural Distribution of the Series; Combinations 

of their Groups,. 

XIY. Combination of the three Orders of Agriculture, . 

XY. Union of the Good and the Beautiful by the Combina¬ 
tion of the three Orders, . . . . . 

XYI. Social Arrangements of the Combined Order, 

XVII. Educational System; Unity of Education in the Com¬ 
bined Order,. 

XVIII. Education of the three Orders of Infancy, 

XIX. Material Means of attracting Early Childhood to In¬ 
dustry, . 

XX. Spiritual Incentives to Industry adapted to Infancy, . 


5 

14 

20 

25 

37 

42 

52 

61 

69 

80 

85 

89 

97 

102 

107 

114 

123 

131 

135 

142 












iv 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


Chap. 

XXL Corrollaries in regard to the Education of early 

Infancy,.149 

XXII. Progressive Education of the Nurslings,. . . 155 

XXIII. Similarities of Character, applied as Checks in the 

Education of early Infancy,.162 

XXIY. Education of the Second Phase of Childhood, aged 

from four to nine,.170 

XXY. The Opera in the Combined Order, — the Pivotal 

Series in Material Unity,.173 

XXYI. The Harmonic Training of Animals, . . . 179 

XXYII. Branches of Agriculture adapted to Children, . . 186 

XXVIII. The Culinary Art. and its influence on Education, 191 

XXIX. Compound Precocity of Children in the Combined 

Order,.199 

XXX. Education in its later Phase; General View of the 

Subject,. 205 

XXXI. Third Phase of Education — the Juvenile Legion, . 209 

XXXII. Civic Functions of the Juvenile Legions, . . 215 

XXXIII. Observations on Passional Equilibrium, . . . 219 

XXXIY. Corporation of the Juvenile Band ; its Organization 227 

XXXV. Social Functions of the Juvenile Bands; Compound 

error in regard to the Capacity of Woman, . 231 

XXXYI. Education in its final Phase ; the Yestalic Body, . 244 

XXXVII. Division of Profits ; Classification of the Series, . 252 

XXXVIII. Direct Accord in the Division of Profits; Equilib¬ 
rium by means of Self-interest, .... 259 

XXXIX. Inverse Accord in the Division of Profits; Balance 

of interests through Generosity, . . . 268 


APPENDIX. 

Note. 

I. The three Distributive or Regulative Passions, . . . 273 

II. The Series,.278 

III. The Collective or Social Man,.285 




PART SECOND 


CONCRETE THEORY. 


CHAPTER FIRST. 

ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION 

IN GRANARIES, DAIRIES AND WINE-CELLARS j AND IN FUEL AND TRANS¬ 
PORTATION. 

I commence the practical study of Association with an examination 
of the enormous economies to which it will give rise. At the same 
time, I will correct an oversight of our Agricultural Societies, which, 
claiming to be devoted to the interests of agriculture, have entirely 
overlooked the investigation of Association, which offers the most ef¬ 
ficient means of promoting those interests: they should have called 
attention to it, and stimulated genius to search for the laws of its organ¬ 
ization. That, they will reply, would have been to propose an Utopi¬ 
an scheme. But if so, it would have been of very little consequence ; 
for are not all the enterprises of a general nature, which they pro¬ 
pose, Utopian in their character, mere dreams of good without the 
means of practical realization ? Now, when men deal with Utopias, 
why not select the grandest and most beautiful of them all — that of 
Agricultural Association ? 



6 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


In studying this subject, we are amazed when we calculate the 
enormous economies which would result from thd union of thiee hun¬ 
dred families, forming an Association of from sixteen to eighteen 
hundred persons, occupying a vast and elegant Edifice, in which they 
would find apartments of various sizes and rates of rent, covered cor¬ 
ridors and passages, tables at different prices, varied' occupations, and 
every thing that can abridge, facilitate and give a charm to labor. 

I have already alluded to the economies of the Combined Order; 
we shall now devote a few chapters to them, which will serve to show 
that Association will produce an amount of wealth ten-fold greater than 
is at present obtained from incoherent Industry, or the civilized sys¬ 
tem of prosecuting labor. 

Hitherto I have estimated the increase of wealth, or the real pro¬ 
duct of Association, at threefold the present amount. This was merely 
a provisional estimate, very much underrated, so that the reader 
might not be repelled. The truth is, that the real product of Associa¬ 
tion would amount at least to tenfold that which can be realized by 
the system of isolated industry. If we convince the reader of this on 
theoretical grounds alone, he will have all the more desire to examine 
the positive theory, or the calculation of the Passional Series, whence 
such enormous wealth is to flow. 

We will now enter into the consideration of details, and examine 
first the advantages of combined granaries and cellars. 

The three hundred granaries which three hundred agricultural fami¬ 
lies now make use of, would be replaced by one vast and airy gran¬ 
ary, divided into special compartments for each species and variety of 
cereal products. Every advantage of ventilation, dryness, warmth and 
storage, could be secured in such an edifice, which no farmer can now 
expect to possess. 

The expense of erecting such a vast granary, — its walls, bins, roofs, 
gates, wheels and pulleys, — so constructed as to be fire-proof and secure 
against insects and vermin, would hardly cost a tenth of the sum 
which the three hundred separate granaries of as many families now 
cost. It would require but ten doors, with their bolts and bars, where 
three hundred are now needed ; and so of all other details. 

It is above all in the means of guarding against fire, and waste of 
every kind that the economies of Association become collossal. Every 
measure of general safety is impracticable among three hundred iso¬ 
lated families, some excessively poor, and others incapable or evilly 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 7 

disposed. Hence, we witness constantly extensive fires through the 
imprudence of a single family. 

, Precautions against the ravages of insects and vermin are likewise 
vain, because the whole of the population does not cooperate in them. 
If by great care, one family succeeds in destroying the rats of its 
granary, it will soon be assailed by those of neighboring granaries, 
which will not have been exterminated by measures taken by the 
whole community : such measures are impossible in Civilization, where 
the destruction of the caterpillar, for example, though every year en¬ 
joined, is never accomplished. But in regions, cultivated according to 
the methods of the Combined Order, there would not even remain a 
caterpillar’s cocoon ; this is one of the worms which will disappear 
after three years of combined culture. 

The system of combination allows opportunity for a multitude of 
economies in processes which are now considered productive : for ex¬ 
ample, three hundred families of an agricultural hamlet send to mar¬ 
ket, not once only, but twenty times in the course of a year. If but 
a bushel of beans or a basket of eggs is to be sold, a day must be 
spent in the neighboring town ; the time thus wasted on the market 
place or in the taverns and groceries, amounts for the three hundred 
families to a loss of six thousand days, without counting the expense of 
wagons or of transportation, which is ten-fold what it would be in the 
Combined Order ; for in this Order, all products are sold in large 
quantities, as purchases are made for an entire Association, consisting 
of eighteen hundred persons. 

While by this means a multiplicity of sales is avoided, as also the 
absurdity of sending three hundred persons to market instead of one, 
and making three hundred bargains in place of one, a useless multi¬ 
plication of operations is likewise avoided. If one Association sends 
three thousand bushels of wheat to three others, the trouble of milling 
and storage will not extend to nine hundred families, but to three 
only. Thus after economising in the sale ninety-nine-hundreths of the 
labor requisite, there will be a similar saving in the labor and ex¬ 
pense of preparation. There then will be a saving twice repeated of 
ninety-nine in a hundred : how often will not similar economies be 
secured ? 

Let us remark that the economies of Association are almost always 
of a compound nature, like that which, saving the expenses of the 
seller, likewise saves, by a resulting process, those of the consumer. 


8 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


Passing from grains to liquids, we find the same complication. Three 
hundred families of & wine-growing district have three hundred cellars 
with their vats, generally managed with as much ignorance as awk¬ 
wardness. The loss is much greater in cellars than in granaries, as 
the preservation of liquids is a much more delicate operation, and 
more liable to accidents, than that of solids. 

An Association, either for the storage of wines, or oil and milk, 
will use but a single cellar. In a wine-growing district, it will con¬ 
tain at the most but a dozen large vats in place of three hundred. 
That number will be sufficient to distribute the various qualities of the 
wine, even though the grapes should be gathered at two or three sep¬ 
arate vintages, as they will be when Association, which is secure 
against any risk of theft, shall allow the gathering of the fruit to be 
made when it comes to maturity, so that the green, ripe and over-ripe 
grapes need not be mingled together as at present. As soon as the 
vintage shall be distributed in three acts, there will be no more gath¬ 
ering of green and over-ripe fruit. 

As to casks, some thirty large ones would replace a thousand small 
barrels, which three hundred civilized families now employ. Thus, in 
addition to a saving of nine-tenths in buildings, there would be a 
saving of nineteen-tw r entieths in cooperage, w’hich is a very expensive 
item, and for our cultivators doubly ruinous: at great expense, they 
are often unable to keep the vessels in their cellars sound and sweet, 
and fluids kept in them are liable to be spoiled, which W'ould be 
avoided under the management of an Association. 

Of all the branches of agricultural industry, the care of wines is 
that in which the civilizees are the least skillful. It is impossible for 
the peasantry, or even for large proprietors, to bestow suitable attention 
on their wines. Various authors, among others Count Chaptal, have 
demonstrated that this branch of industry is still in its infancy ; in il¬ 
lustrating the lack of skill prevalent among the agriculturists of Civili¬ 
zation, I allude to it in preference to any other. 

In the autumn of 1819, the arrondissement in which I lived, lost 
over 10,000 casks of wine, wffiich wure spoiled, because the weak 
qualities required attention in three respects, impossible to be given in 
the Civilized Order. 

1. Good cellars, properly located, either upon a rocky foundation, or 
upon an elevated position, with a northern exposure. Can the peasant 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


9 


secure these conditions ? It would be impossible even for the rich 
proprietor, who makes use of such a cellar as chance may offer him. 

2. The daily airing of cellars and casks: the mass of wine-growers 
have neither the time, talent nor means to bestow such attentions as 
these. Only the Passional Series could execute such labors. 

3. Mixing of weak wines with those of a stronger quality to give 
them the proper body. Neither the cultivator nor the wine-dealer can 
hope to procure the warm wines of Portugal, Spain, Calabria and Cy¬ 
prus. But an Association which purchases supplies for eighteen hun¬ 
dred members, will correspond with all countries, and easily procure 
by the system of direct commercial intercourse every commodity neces¬ 
sary, and of the requisite qualities. 

Theorists neglect also to estimate the possible improvements in the 
quality of products, especially wines. The real value of a wine crop, 
the quality of which is perfected only after a lapse of a series of years, 
may be quadrupled ; but in Civilization, it is consumed before it has 
attained a quarter or a sixth of the value which it might attain. A 
given district produces wines which are sold at five cents the first year, 
and which might be sold at fifty at the end of five years; but the 
whole is generally consumed the first or second year, before the wine 
has had time to become free of its crudity or impurities. 

There is no economy admitted to be more urgently required than 
that of fuel; in the Combined Order, this will be very great; an As¬ 
sociation will have but five kitchens in place of three hundred, pre¬ 
paring for the following tables: 

The specially ordered, or extra. 

The first, second and third prices. 

That in which edibles are prepared for the animals. 

For the five kitchens, three-. great fires will be sufficient, which, 
compared with the three hundred kitchen fires of three hundred fami¬ 
lies, make the saving of fuel amount to nine-tenths. 

The saving of fuel for parlor fires is no less great: it will be seen 
when we come to treat of the Passional Series, that their groups, 
whether engaged in in-door or manufacturing industry, or united for 
purposes of pleasure, will always consist of large numbers, and will 
occupy spacious halls, which I will call Seristeries , warmed by steam 
three hours out of the twenty-four. Private fires will be very rare, 
except in the depth of winter, as few persons will visit their rooms 
before the hour of retiring to rest, when the warm air can be let on 


10 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


for the occasion. Besides, the cold will be hardly felt in the interior of 
the Palace of an Association ; in all parts of it there will be covered 
galleries, wanned to a moderate degree, by means of which communica¬ 
tion may be had without exposure to the inclemencies of the weather. 
The inmates can go to the workshops and refectories, attend balls and 
assemblies, without putting on furs or overshoes, and without any 
risk of colds. These covered communications will likewise extend 
from the edifice to the stables, either by underground passages, lighted 
from above, or by galleries raised on columns as high as the first story. 

The consumption of wood and coal will be great only for cooking; 
food will be prepared in three vast kitchens ;* three fires will suffice 
for this purpose; the remains of these fires with the braziers will 
cook the food for the domestic animals. 

I have enumerated a few of the economies of Association ; they 
always amount to at least three-fourths, or nine-tenths, and frecpiently 
to ninety-nine-hundreths, as we have seen in speaking of marketing, 
and of the sales and purchases of commodities, even when they fire 
of such slight value as to be reckoned at present of no account; when 
the saving amounts to ninety-nine in a hundred, or even half that 
amount, as in the sale of milk, they become of great importance. If 
a hamlet is near a city, we sometimes see three hundred families send 
a hundred milkmen with as many cans of milk, the transport and sale 
of which cost to these families the loss of a hundred mornings. I have 
already remarked that this work might all be done by a single per- 


* As individual property will be maintained in the Combined Order,—which will be 
effected by representing the real and personal estate of the Association by stock, di¬ 
vided into shares, owned by the members according to their means,— there will be dif¬ 
ferent prices in living : apartments at different prices ; tables at different prices ; and so 
of other details. Fourier estimates that there will be three classes of prices in tables : 

The first class, the cheapest, accommodating about nine hundred persons. 

The second class, the medium price, accommodating about five hundred persons. 

The third class, the dearest, accommodating about three hundred persons. 

Individuals will select tables according to their means or their attractions ; entire 
liberty will reign in this as iu all other respects. No equalitj r , no uniformity, no pre¬ 
scribed rules will exist; variety and liberty will be essential features of Associative life. 
Classification, with ranks, grades and other distinctions is inherent in human nature; 
were it not so, man would be a herding animal ; human beings would live together like 
sheep, deer, buffaloes,— all equals. The classification or hierarchal organization of the 
Combined Order will be a natural one, that is, derived from, and corresponding to, man’s 
passional nature. The organizations of the past and present, with their castes and 
classes, and their privileges, are false, hut they indicate a great truth in social polh 
tics.—E d. 



ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


11 


son, with a single horse and cart, making an economy of forty-nine in 
fifty. The economy will be double the amount, if we suppose the milk- 
distributor to visit two or three great establishments in a city of the 
Combined Order, for he would -be able to return home in less than 
half the time which would be required for any one of the hundred 
milkmen. There is then a real economy of ninety-nine in a hundred 
as regards time, and the number of persons employed. 

The economics just enumerated are all effected in branches of in¬ 
dustry which are already known and practiced ; we might enumerate 
a multitude of others relating to labors that might be avoided.’ I shall 
call these negative economies, in contrast with the preceding, which 
are positive , by which labor is abridged, but yet performed. 

Let me adduce an instance of labor avoided, or of a negative econ¬ 
omy, effected by Association : there is one which is very great; it re¬ 
lates to the precautions which must now be taken against theft. 

The risk of theft compels three hundred families, or at least the 
hundred in most comfortable circumstances, to incur a useless expense 
for a hundred fences, walls, ditches, watch-dogs, and other means of 
defense against thieves. This useless and expensive outlay would be 
unnecessary in Association, which has the ability to prevent all theft, 
and to dispense with every precaution against danger of this kind. 

In the relations of the Combined Order, it would be impossible to 
derive any advantage from a stolen object: besides, the people living 
in comfort and imbued with honorable sentiments, would not even en¬ 
tertain the idea, of theft. It will be shown that children, naturally in¬ 
clined to pilfer fruit, would not, in the Combined Order, take an apple 
from a tree. We shall have proof of this in the chapters which treat 
of the corporate pride which will prevail in the Passional Series. 

In the item of fruit alone, let us consider the losses arising from 
theft In populous cities, any one may see the markets abounding in 
fruit which is unripe and exceedingly unhealthy, especially in varieties 
that bear a stone. When the peasants are reproached for this gather¬ 
ing of unripe fruit, this wholesale waste, their apology is, that it would 
be stolen if left to ripen. Thus theft vitiates the qualities of fruit by 
inducing a premature gathering. As the crop is not gathered at the 
right time, and in three successive operations, by which the mingling 
of green, ripe and decayed fruit would be avoided, it becomes difficult 
and even impossible to keep it: this inconvenience, together with the 
want of proper fruit rooms, and of scientific processes for preserving 


12 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


fruit, tends to limit the amount preserved to a twentieth part of what 
it might be, and to restrict in the same proportion its cultivation. 

A loss which is much greater in a negative sense, and which may 
be estimated at twenty times the real crop, arises from the aversion to 
plant orchards and vineyards. I do not exaggerate when I say that 
twenty times as much fruit would be raised, if the difficulties connect¬ 
ed with this business in the Civilized Order could be avoided, that is, 
if there were, 

1. A guarantee against theft. 

2. Security against deception in the purchase of young trees. 

3. Friendly cooperation in the cultivation of the orchards and care 
of the fruit. 

4. Adequate supply of varieties, and of proper soils and appliances, 
requisite to perfect success in this branch of culture. 

Pivot. —Finally, as a pivotal condition and a means of preserving 
large quantities of fruit, sugar to be had at low prices ; this article must 
be used with fruit in order to save large quantities and inferior quali¬ 
ties. 

In a social order, in w r hich these advantages could be combined, 
the nine-tenths of persons would find a noble recreation in the cultiva¬ 
tion of fruit, w'hich, of all occupations, is the one most generally liked, 
and the most attractive to both sexes and all ages; every age and 
each sex has some fruit for which it has a predeliction ; the currant is 
a favorite with children, the orange with women. 

Fruit allied with sugar will constitute the bread of Harmony ; it 
will become a fundamental food among peoples that have become rich 
and happy. But the civilized and barbarian societies, being unable 
to bring the whole globe under cultivation, and to raise the commodi¬ 
ties of the torrid zone — sugar, coffee, cocoa — at as little expense as 
the products of the temperate zone, — wheat, wine, oil, etc.,—it is im¬ 
possible to procure at a moderate price the sugar necessary to pre¬ 
serve fruit and make it an economical food. This, however, could be 
possible as soon as Africa shall begin to produce sugar, and exchange 
it, weight for weight, for wheat flour. This result might be brought 
about in a very short time. When sugar becomes thus abundant, 
children will be fed on fruit,. preserved with a fourth part of that ar¬ 
ticle ; weight for weight, it will cost less than bread, which is a very ex¬ 
pensive edible from the necessity of its being frequently made afresh. 
There is no difficulty of this kind with stewed fruits and preserves; 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


13 


the one can be made in quantities sufficient to last a week, the other 
in quantities to last a year ; whereas bread must be made anew at 
- least every three days, and certain kinds every day. To avoid the 
difficulty of daily preparation of food, the Harmonians will make use 
of fruit variously prepared with sugar, which is much more accepta¬ 
ble to women and children than the best bread. As the civilizees* 
have never dreamed of the possibility of an integral cultivation of the 
globe, they have been unable to perceive that the pivotal food of man 
cannot be bread, which is a simple edible, the product of a single zone, 
but fruit combined with sugar, which is a compound edible, the pro¬ 
duce of two zones. 

If we make an estimate of the cost of the bread of Harmony , we 
shall find that, when the raising of fruit is increased twenty-fold, and 
that all which is not of the first quality, is employed for preserving, it 
will hardly cost, weight for weight, an eighth of the price of bread; 
the latter will be dearer in the Combined order — owing to the want 
of attraction in the cultivation of wheat — than in Civilization. The 
expense of preserved fruit will then hardly exceed the cost of one- 
fourth of the sugar used. The trouble of preparation will be very 
slight, because it will be one of the most attractive occupations; the 
series employed in it will receive no large dividends, owing to the at¬ 
tractiveness with which this kind of labor will be invested. 

This abundance of preserved fruit will produce no hurtful effects, 
when the tendency of sugar to produce worms shall be corrected by 
the use of the stronger kinds of wine by the men, the lighter varieties 
by the women and children, and of acidulated drinks, such as lemon¬ 
ade and the like : the latter will become very abundant when the 
torrid zone, brought under cultivation, will furnish, cargo for cargo, 
lemons and citrons in exchange for our finer varieties of apples. 


* We speak of a “ Barbarian,” a “ Savage,” to designate the man of the barbarian and 
the savage states; there is no corresponding term by which to designate the man of the 
civilized state. Fourier coins one — Civilizer; in French, Civilis€. There is some¬ 
thing deprecatory in the expression; but it expresses, in his opinion, the character 
which Civilization imposes on man.—E d. 


12 



CHAPTER SECOND. 


DIVISION OF THE ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION INTO 
GENERIC AND POTENTIAL. 

In order that we may better discern and appreciate the advantages 
of Association, let us distribute them in general divisions; into real 
and relative ; positive and negative classes; I shall often have occa¬ 
sion to refer to these distinctions; it is necessary to bear them in 
mind. 

It is understood that we take for granted the discovery of the as¬ 
sociative method and its efficacy. It is not an assumption altogether 
novel; for in algebra we proceed in no other way than by assuming 
a solution of all the conditions of the problem. I have made many 
discoveries in this way. 

Any one might have anticipated me : the greater part of my analyses 
of the results of Association might have been arrived at, even before 
any knowledge of the method had been obtained 5 it was only necessa¬ 
ry to calculate the results of the united labors of large numbers, em¬ 
ployed in agriculture, and operating on the same principle as the 
members of a joint-stock company, in which every one carefully watches 
the interests of the whole body with which his own is identified. 

Let us proceed to the subject of the present chapter. We will first 
indicate the negative advantage of association, which consists in pro¬ 
ducing without doing anything more than a civilizee, who while laboring 
diligently frequently produces less than nothing / as for example, when 
he builds walls to enclose his private domain. If there was no theft; 
if flocks were, as in the Combined Order, so well guarded and attended 
by dogs, that there would be need only of slight hedges to mark a 
boundary, or of a single cord watched by a dog, division walls and 
fences might be dispensed with ; and the expense of the construction 
and keeping up of such structures would be spared. They are then 
a superfluous labor, if we take into view the Combined Order, which 
will have no need of them. 



ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


15 


Thus a wall which is quite new, and built at great expense, is rel¬ 
atively speaking worth nothing as regards its present productive 
value, and is worth less than nothing as regards the future product, 
since it will cause an expense to keep it in repair, and in addition 
will shade the ground, which is another source of loss. 

The greater part of the works, which are looked upon as of the 
highest importance in the Civilized Order, are either worth nothing or 
less than nothing , — such, for example, as fortifications and vessels of 
war, which are an immense annual expense, independent of the rav¬ 
ages they cause in time of war. Governments will have no need of 
fortresses, arsenals and navies, when universal peace shall reign. Such 
a peace will be the occasion of a negative profit, by saving the inju¬ 
ries caused by w r ar, and by dispensing with the constructions which it 
now renders necessary. 

This negative economy, or the saving of unproductive labor, is 
easily distinguished from positive economy,' such as the extension of a 
branch of cultivation like that of fruit, by w r hich the general product 
would be increased twenty-fold. 

As negative economies are the least appreciated in the present 
state of society, let us take an illustration of them from fish and game. 

1 . Fish in lakes and streams: This edible is all the more valuable 
from its requiring no attention, and because its excessive multiplica¬ 
tion is not attended, as is the case with game, by any injury to grow¬ 
ing crops. How great would be the abundance of fish, if there could 
be a general concert to abstain from catching them at given periods, 
and to leave a certain proportion in every stream! Such a measure 
would be one of the characteristics of the Combined Order. I have 
heard experienced fishermen say that in any ordinary year, twenty 
times more fish might be caught in all the little streams, if the people 
could agree to take them only at the proper seasons, and in quantities 
proportioned to an adequate reproduction of the species, and if they 
vmuld devote a fourth of the time spent in ruining the streams to the 
hunting of the otter. This will be the practice in Association, which 
will add to the product of the streams that of artificial ponds, in which 
fish will be kept and fattened in a series of reservoirs, allotted to dis¬ 
tinct varieties. 

Naturalists admire the munificence of nature in the gift of those 
swarms of herrings, sent to us every year, and for which we may thank 
that barrier of polar ices which preserves them from human pursuit 


16 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


during the period of reproduction. If this barrier were removed, and 
the polar seas were open to fishing at all times by our shipping, it 
is certain that the avidity of the fishermen would soon deprive the 
north of this celestial manna. We should derive from the herring 
hardly a twentieth part of the product which their peaceful multipli¬ 
cation now ensures. 

The unanimity of action in the Combined Order will secure us 
similar advantages from the fish of streams and rivers, of which we 
are deprived of a twenty-fold increase, obtainable either in the streams 
or in artificial ponds connected with them. -The total of all this neg¬ 
ative wealth, the particulars of which I have just indicated, will yield 
an average product really ten-fold greater than what is obtained in all 
branches of industry now rendered comparatively fruitless. 

2. Game: It is at Once the ornament of the country, a source of 
wealth for men, and the destroyer of injurious insects. If it is neces¬ 
sary to avoid the excessive multiplication of some species, it is likewise 
needful to prevent their destruction. Cultivators complain that the 
multitude of sportsmen causes our fields and gardens to be infested 
with caterpillars, by destroying the birds which feed on those vermin : 
the sportsman does not kill the sparrow which consumes a great deal 
of wheat, but he does destroy the birds that devour insects, and are 
an ornament to the country. 

In speculating upon an order of things in which agricultural in¬ 
dustry will become more attractive than the chase, which consequent¬ 
ly will be neglected and pursued only as necessity may require,.we 
meet with the following results : 

A negative profit, or the increase of game, without care on the part 
of man, to nine-tenths or more. 

A positive profit, or the destruction of insects, which, however, it is 
not worth while to estimate, for the industry of Association will re¬ 
duce injurious insects, such as caterpillars, to a very small number, 
scarcely sufficient to supply the birds with food. 

All these calculations have reference to the application of the Series 
to Industry, which give regularity and method to all industrial func¬ 
tions, to hunting and fishing as to all others, and limit their develop¬ 
ment to a degree compatible with general utility. 

They who speculate on Association without a knowledge of its 
central principle — the Passional Series — will be unable to determine 
with accuracy a just equilibrium between functions and wants; but 



ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


17 


without understanding all the advantages of the Combined Order, they 
might have discovered some of the more apparent, such as combined 
granaries and cellars. 

To sum up, we may distinguish three kinds of wealth : Positive, 
Negative and Relative . These will constitute the real wealth of Asso¬ 
ciation. 

1 . Positive wealth will consist of the products obtained by active 
industry. We have in the Civilized Order a large amount of positive 
.wealth, from which we might obtain a double or triple result; of this 
nature are forests, which without cultivation grow too compactly 5 where¬ 
as every sapling and young tree would, in the Combined Order, be as 
carefully cultivated as a delicate shrub or plant now is in our gardens. 

In certain directions we have too much positive wealth : thus in 
regard to the quantity of wine produced, we might reduce the num¬ 
ber of casks in which it is stored to a third by using larger vats and 
hogsheads. Thus real wealth in this sense might depend upon a dimi¬ 
nution of positive product. Association will know how to obtain more 
wealth out of a forest of a hundred acres than we from one twice as 
large, which is uncultivated. 

2. Negative wealth will consist of germs undeveloped, the product 
of which may be increased ten-fold without labor, as is the case with 
the fish of streams, the product of which will be negative in streams 
and lakes, and positive in artificial ponds in which they are kept to 
fatten. One very important source of negative product will be that 
of labors avoided, such as walls and fences, fortifications and supplies 
of war. 

3. Relative wealth will consist in the proper application of re¬ 
sources without any change in them. If, for example, entrance to the 
opera can be afforded for five cents instead of a dollar, there will be 
a relative increase of wealth to the extent of twenty-fold. A granary 
will be the same thing in the Combined Order as now ; but if it can 
be protected against rats and weevil, dampness and frost, what an. in¬ 
crease would this be of relative wealth! 

In these estimates of the sources of wealth, I have not mentioned 
the principal, which is the health of man and of the domestic animals, 
and the longevity of individuals, especially of man an<J the horse, the 
most expensive to rear, and which Civilization sacrifices by legions, as 
if they were of no more value than so many flies. 

If Association is to raise every species to its highest perfection, the 


18 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


human race should attain at least to a three-fold degree of vigor, lon¬ 
gevity, and intelligence. But on this point I can only announce re¬ 
sults, and reserve my proofs for a regular treatise, in which I will 
show that among other advantages relative to health, Association will, 
in a few years after its universal establishment, effect the extirpation 
of the different varieties of artificial virus — psoric, pestilential, and 
syphilitic — and prevent the principal diseases, such as the gout, epi¬ 
lepsy, rheumatism, fevers, and the like, which are an essential offshoot 
of the vicious system of the Civilizees, but which will be almost un-. 
known in the Combined Order, in consequence of the activity of the 
harmonic life, and of its pleasures, varied without excess. 

The ultimate improvement of the different species of animals will be 
readily understood from the example of the horse. If be can be 
brought to a high degree of improvement in the deserts of Arabia, 
in what country can he not attain great perfection with suitable atten¬ 
tion and care ? A country wdiich now produces only a miserable breed 
of horses, will produce in its stead, in less tha!n twenty years, fine 
breeds, worth at least ten times as much ; and so with its sheep, cat¬ 
tle and other domestic animals. Thus a country may, by the simple 
improvement of its domestic animals, secure a ten-fold increase of posi¬ 
tive wealth in one direction. 

Association will possess the means of taming many species of ani¬ 
mals which have not hitherto been domesticated; for example, the 
beaver, the zebra, and the partridge. The fur of the beaver and the 
vigone will be as abundant in the Combined Order as the wool of the 
merino sheep now is. The beaver will build their dams in valleys 
defended by palisades. The zebra seduced into obedience by devices 
now impracticable, and not broken, will serve with docility many pur¬ 
poses of the Combined Order. The zebra and the quagga, two mag¬ 
nificent beasts of burden, superior to the horse in speed, and equal to 
the ass in the capacity of endurance, are a conquest impossible in Civ¬ 
ilization ; even were the Civilizees acquainted with the proper methods 
of taming them, they could make no use of these animals, because they 
are destitute of all those arrangements which their instincts require. 

Without going into the details of all these brilliant results, it would 
seem sufficient, to exhibit the increase of wealth which Association 
promises, to interest a mercantile age like the present in its establish¬ 
ment Many moderns have caught a glimpse of the colossal riches 
which Association would create; but instead of making it a subject of 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


19 


study, they have drawn back in amazement, declaring such results im¬ 
possible — such perfection beyond the reach of man. Thus the brilliant 
results of Association have been for the mind what the brilliancy of 
the sun is for the eye, which can not gaze upon it steadily. But be¬ 
cause the splendor of the sun is intolerable to our vision, does it fol¬ 
low that that luminary does not exist ? Thus have they reasoned 
who pretend that Association is impossible, because its results are too 
immense for their limited imaginations. 

But “the passions,” “the inequalities of fortune,” “the conflicts of 
interests, “the antipathies of character”! how are these obstacles to be 
overcome ? The Passions, now believed to be the enemies of concord, 
tend only to that unity to which we judge them so opposed. But out 
of the organization in which they are destined to act—the Series of 
Groups — they are tigers let loose. This has led our Philosophers to 
think that they should be repressed; — an opinion doubly absurd, for 
the passions can only be repressed by violence or by absorbing substi¬ 
tution, the latter of which is not repression ; and could they be effec¬ 
tually repressed, the Civilized Order would rapidly decline, and sink 
into the Nomadic state, in which the passions would be as pernicious 
in their action as they now are. The virtues of the shepherds are as 
doubtful as those of their eulogists, and our authors of Utopias, in sup¬ 
posing the existence of virtues among imaginary peoples, only prove 
the impossibility of introducing virtue into Civilization. 


. 

< 

CHAPTER THIRD. 

ENORMOUS RELATIVE PROFITS OF ASSOCIATION : THIRTY¬ 
FOLD. HUNDRED-FOLD, THOUSAND-FOLD, ETC. 

The distrust of readers is excited when they are promised a de¬ 
gree of wealth entirely beyond their moderate desires. It will be. 
necessary, however, in describing the mechanism of that social system 
which is to be the subject of the following chapters, to exhibit every 
point that may excite interest. 

Estimates of profits augmented a hundred-fold, although based on 
very just grounds, may ill accord with the petty ambition of the ma¬ 
jority of men ; they will exclaim: u To what purpose the exhibition 
of the prospect of such boundless wealth, when a tenth of the amount 
would satisfy the most exacting ? ” We can only answer that they will 
be free to refuse it. 

The relative product of Association is so immense as to deserve a 
special chapter. That I may not excite incredulity, I shall exhibit it 
by degrees, on a thirty-fold, hundred-fold, thousand-fold, and infinites¬ 
imal scale. 

And first, I will consider the thirty-fold increase. We must, how¬ 
ever, suppose the Combined Order fully established. 

Thirty-fold. Two persons are steady attendants of the opera: one 
pays three francs daily for admission, and at the end of the year, for 
a hundred representations, he will have paid three hundred francs. 
The other, by special favor, is admitted without charge, with the ex¬ 
ception of a few presents made by him, which may amount to ten 
francs. Both have participated in the same pleasure 5 one at a charge 
of three hundred, the other of ten francs. He, then, who pays thirty 
times less than the other, has enjoyed an advantage relatively thirty¬ 
fold greater. 

It is objected that the opera is an amusement, and not a positive 
gain, not a product that can be laid up ? That is of little conse¬ 
quence ; our object is to determine the relative profits of Associa- 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


21 


tion ; besides, iu the Combined Order, no advantage is unimportant, 
for all its parts are intimately connected, and a result obtained in the 
increase of pleasure can be turned to the account of productive in¬ 
dustry. 

Let me remove an error which prevails on this point. Civilization, 
always embarrassed with the difficulty of feeding and clothing its fam¬ 
ished masses, measures its real wealth only by the amount of the 
mere necessaries of life which its labor can produce; the estimate is 
quite in keeping with the poverty of this society. The Harmonians, 
however, who are never in want even of the superfluities of life, and 
who always have on hand supplies sufficient to last many years, do 
not estimate the amount of their wealth as we do, in the simple mode, 
by the quantity of food at their command: they take into account all 
their pleasures, which are calculated to create an attraction for agri¬ 
cultural and manufacturing industry. On this principle, an amuse¬ 
ment, like the opera, becomes a source of wealth, if it can contribute 
to the increase of attraction — the incentive to productive labor. We 
shall see hereafter that the opera in the Combined Order is indis¬ 
pensable to physical and industrial education. 

Out of regard to prevailing prejudices, I will restrict my calcula¬ 
tions to the useful — to food, clothing and lodging; I will determine the 
average product obtainable, and strike a balance between the real and 
relative wealth in these commodities. The increase of relative wealth, 
which in the matter of the opera amounts to thirty-fold, will be seen 
in other things to be a hundred and even a thousand-fold. 

As an illustration of a hundred-fold increase, let me take the case 
of artificial and natural clothing. By artificial clothing or vesture, I 
understand the stuffs, as well as the walls and chambers which we 
use ; and by natural , I mean the atmosphere, which, by being in con¬ 
stant contact with our persons, becomes a natural portion of our vesture. 

In this respect, a prince in the Civilized Order does not attain a 
hundredth part of the wealth of the poorest of the Harmonians. The 
charm connected with clothing does not depend upon its being cov¬ 
ered with gold, but in being abundant and convenient, adapted to all 
needs, and the wants of the moment. If the prince spoken of should 
desire, in the season of winter, to go from a public assembly to a ball; 
he has no warm, covered communications through which to pass. The 
atmosphere and the shelter of a house are, however, really an essen¬ 
tial part of our clothing. As to that portion of our clothing which 


22 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


consists of what is called ‘‘stuffs/’ the poorest of the Harmonians will 
in this respect be the equal of our princes, because the Combined Or¬ 
der will multiply furs and cashmeres to such a degree, that these com¬ 
modities will be within the reach of the humblest classes ; the ordinary 
qualities of wools will be used for common purposes, such as the trim¬ 
ming of carriages and for working dresses. 

Our monarchs, then, so far as clothing is concerned, are in a con¬ 
dition far inferior to that of the humblest Harmonian, for they are des¬ 
titute of the chief ingredient of an agreeable dress, namely, an artificial 
atmosphere adapted to every function. The king of France has not a 
porch to his palace under which he may enter with his carriage, com¬ 
pletely sheltered from the inclemencies of the weather : what then must 
be the poverty of the lower classes, who as soldiers, for example, are 
obliged to bivouac on the snow or in the mud ! The humblest mem¬ 
ber of the Combined Order will, on entering a carriage, do so under 
a well-warmed portico; he will work in the open air only when the 
weather is fair; he will find at convenient points on the domain of 
his Association pavillions, in which will be stored awnings and changes 
of apparel, and where refreshments will be brought after periods of la¬ 
bor of an hour and a half or two hours continuance, and in case of 
rain or storm, a carriage in which to return to the Phalanstery or 
palace of the Association. 

In Civilization, no one has ever dreamed of improving that portion 
of our clothing which we call the atmosphere, with which we are con¬ 
tinually in contact It is not enough to improve it in the parlors of 
a few rich, who, on leaving their houses, are liable to catch colds in 
the damp and chilly air. The atmosphere at large must be improved, 
and adapted to the requirements of the human race; and this improve¬ 
ment should be compound, effecting, first, a general modification and 
improvement of the climate, which is the essential ; and, second, a lo¬ 
cal and artificial improvement, which is an accessory result; the for¬ 
mer is unknown, and of the latter very little is understood, even in 
our largest cities; thus in Paris we see an open bazaar, called the 
Palais Royal, whose covered galleries are neither warmed in winter, 
nor ventilated in summer. This is evidence of the very lowest degree 
of poverty, if we compare it with the condition of the Combined Or¬ 
der, in which the poorest classes will have means of communication, 
warmed and ventilated, and awnings and tents under which to work 
when necessary. 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


23 


The augmentation of comfort or relative wealth in the matter of 
clothing will, then, be immensely great; it will be no exaggeration to 
estimate it at a hundred-fold, if we take into account the improvement 
of*the atmospere or our natural vesture. 

Let us now consider relative wealth where the increase becomes a 
thousand-fold or indeterminate in amount: we shall find such an in¬ 
crease in improvements in the residences, and the means of travel per¬ 
taining to the Combined Order. 

As soon as this Order shall be completely established, he, who now 
lives in a hovel or a garret, will live in a Palace, and will, moreover, 
be received and entertained in the Palaces of all the Associations in 
different countries, .where he may travel, -^Palaces that will be far 
more elegant and commodious than are those of the greatest capitals 
of Civilization. 

The same individual, now so poor that he carries his coarse shoes 
in his hands, for fear of wearing them out (as is the custom of the 
peasantry of France), will, on all the highways of the globe, have the 
right of admission to the public vehicles, and will be treated hospita¬ 
bly in all the Associations he visits, for the Harmonians will every¬ 
where exercise the most liberal hospitality. 

Considered from this point of view, the wealth of such a person 
would be augmented much more than a thousand-fold, when compared 
with his condition in the Civilized Order. Even kings, with such 
privileges, might consider themselves a thousand times richer than 
they now are ; for let them take a few days’ journey from their do¬ 
minions, let them pass, for example, from France to a country like 
Barbary, they will find neither lodgings nor food, much less palaces 
with compound pleasures, that is to say, pleasures adapted at once to 
the senses and the soul, affording scope for the combined activity of 
the sensative and affective passions. As regards lodgings, a monarch 
then is poor, if, desiring to travel in Asia or Africa, he should be un¬ 
able to find a house for shelter, and should meet only with robbers, 
vermin and inhospitable climates ; or should be denied admission into 
many States, like China and Japan, which his love of travel might in¬ 
cline him to visit. 

Relative wealth may, then, in the Combined Order, in certain 
cases be augmented to that incalculable extent, which we have termed 
a thousand-fold, and the indeterminate degree ,* taking the average of 
these relative augmentations of wealth, combined with the real aug- 


24 


ECONOMIES OF -ASSOCIATION. 


mentation of which we treated in the first chapter, and the potential, 
examined in the second, it will be seen that I am very far below the 
truth in my estimates of the increase of wealth in Association, — a 
general statement of which here follows: 

Simple Association: three-fold positive; ten-fold relative. 

Mixed Association : five-fold positive ; twenty-fold relative. 

Compound Association: seven-fold positive: thirty-fold relative. 

After the perusal of the treatise on the Passional Series, in which 
the art of organizing this beneficent industrial system will be ex¬ 
plained, the reader, however incredulous he may have been as to my 
statements in the few first pages, will be quite ready to add to my es¬ 
timates. 

This immense increase of wealth will be the effect of the applica¬ 
tion of the Series to Industry; they will apply, and in the most effi¬ 
cient manner, the three levers in production, namely, intelligence , skill, 
and machinery; they will assign to each branch of industry, not a 
single intelligent man, but a number of skillful practitioners, divided 
into groups, each of whom excels in some theoretical or practical 
detail, and is occupied from passion with a single species or variety, 
not with an entire genius, like our agriculturists,• these latter perforin 
functions to which a Series would assign some fifty skillful men, and 
acquire in consequence but a tenth part of the skill that would be 
possessed by the members of a Series. • 



CHAPTER FOURTH. 


COMPOUND ECONOMIES; INCREASE OF PRODUCTION IN 
VARIOUS DEGREES. 

I close, with the present chapter, the subject of Economies; if I 
treat at length of the pecuniary advantages of Association, it is to 
meet the tastes of an age which is entirely mercantile in its spirit, 
absorbed in commercial and financial schemes, and carried away by 
dreams of wealth. 

In examining the means of increasing the product of Industry, I 
will first point out an error which misleads men in all their calcula¬ 
tions relating to pecuniary interests ; it is the tendency to make sim¬ 
ple improvements which neutralize or counteract each other. If one 
district improves by some means a branch of agriculture, great con¬ 
gratulations are expressed, and for what ? The good has made pro¬ 
gress in one direction, while evil has made far greater, perhaps, in 
another, either by the destruction of forests and the deterioration of the 
climate, or in some other way. The modern age would have been put 
on its guard against such illusive ameliorations, if its scientific leaders 
had discovered the necessity of speculating on the totality of improve¬ 
ments to be effected, and extended their views from the Simple to the 
Compound mode of investigation. 

Let us examine this defect of Simplism in the ways and means re¬ 
sorted to for increasing wealth ; first, in their totality ; then we will 
descend to details, to the primary source of wealth, which is the day’s 
labor. 

Two elements enter into and constitute wealth : 

Internal wealth, or Health. 

External wealth, or pecuniary Fortune. 

Pecuniary fortune secures us conditionally the enjoyment of mate¬ 
rial happiness, and with the possession of health or internal riches, the 
complete development of the sensuous faculties. 

A system of Compound Economy should speculate on the combiua- 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


26 

tion of the two kinds of wealth ; it falls into the error of simplism if 
it organizes an Order into which they do not both enter, and are not 
made to act in concert, lending each other a reciprocal support. 

The contrary is the case in Civilization ; the opulent classes have 
less vigor than the laboring classes, who, poor in external wealth or 
fortune, possess in a greater degree internal wealth or health ; we do 
not see the gout and dyspepsia install themselves in the cabins of the 
poor, but we find them in the gilded chambers of the rich. 

The Civilized Order thus establishes a conflict of the two kinds of 
wealth, a separation between them ; for internal wealth , or health, ex¬ 
ists in a divergent ratio to external wealth , or fortune. The rich are 
less robust than the poor, which in social mechanics is a monstrous 
violation of principles. The two kinds of wealth should, according to 
the law of unity, be convergent; each should sustain and lead to the 
other. What can be more false than the union of two elements which 
are at war with each other ? Such, in Civilization, is the tendency of 
the two kinds of wealth, constantly in conflict. The external, or for¬ 
tune, leads its possessor to excesses, which undermine health ; while, 
on the other hand, internal wealth, or vigor, leads to excesses in pleas¬ 
ures which undermine fortune. They necessarily destroy each other: 
how can political economists talk of unity of action and of economy of 
means, when conflict of action reigns in the primary elements of hu¬ 
man life ? Can they deny that conflict and antagonism exist in a sys¬ 
tem, in which man fails to accumulate wealth in labors that procure 
health, and loses health in the enjoyment of pleasures procured by 
fortune ? Can they deny that wisdom and happiness can exist only in 
an order of things that unites health with wealth, and causes the one 
to lead to the other ? Such would be the constant effect of the Soci- 
etary Order. 

A prejudice has always blinded men to the disorder and conflict 
that exist in the two kinds of wealth ; they have thought that Provi¬ 
dence wished to divide its favors, give to the laborer health and vigor 
as an indemnity for his privations. This sophism conveys the idea of 
an equitable balance; it is not the less erroneous ; it is not thus that 
God speculates on justice ; there is nothing simple in his plans, and 
in the destiny he has assigned to man ; he does not cause equilibrium 
to consist in a divergence, but in a convergence of contrasted ele¬ 
ments. 

Such will be the effect of the Passional Series, which will combine 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 27 

health with wealth, and in which one person in twelve will attain the 
age of a hundred and forty-four years.* 

The rich will find every guarantee of health and vitality in the 
pursuits of attractive industry, and in the variety of occupations and 
pleasures which the Combined Order will secure — a variety that will 
prevent all excesses; at the same time, the poorer classes (who are only 
so comparatively) will possess the guarantee of an ample minimum of 
support, and the enjoyment of all social privileges. Thus will be es¬ 
tablished the concurrence of health and wealth, without which there 
can be no unity of action between these two elements — the internal 
and the external. 

Let us define more exactly the radical error of our moral and po¬ 
litical theorists, all given to speculate in a simple sense. 

The Political Economists, on wealth neglecting health. 

Th(f Moralists, on health neglecting wealth. 

Every thing is compound in human destiny; if the masses of men 
do not arrive at the possession of the two kinds of wealth combinedly, 
they will fall into the two opposite poverties; this takes place in the 
present order, in which we see a fall of— 

The rich into relative poverty and into comparative and real de¬ 
bility. 

The poor into real poverty, and into relative and forced debility.! 

Such are the constant results of the present Social Order. Our po¬ 
litical and moral theories have not discovered the means of securing 
to man compound wealth — or health and fortune combined; in this 


* The average life of man in Association will, according to Fourier, be a hundred 
and twenty-two years. He makes this statement in one of his manuscripts, but with¬ 
out giving the grounds on which he bases his estimate. — Ed. 

f It is forced, inasmuch as their necessities oblige them to sacrifice their health in 
unwholesome occupations, in confined and unventilated workshops, in prolonged labors, 
which wear out at an early period the constitution, and expose them to various diseases. 
They are consequently in a state of relative and forced debility. They possess the 
germs of health, but they are obliged to sacrifice it, to plunge from destitution into dis¬ 
ease, to run into the jaws of death from starvation. 

The Civilized mind, imbued with the spirit of sophistry, speculates with complacency 
on illusionary compensations, like those described. The truth is, that as man is a being 
whose destiny is compound, he must attain to a state of compound happiness in a Social 
Order designed for him by God, or hill into a state of compound misery in the incohe¬ 
rent Societies, established by men. It is in this light that we must regard Divine justice 
in Social affairs ; it is invariable in its mode of action ; it is full of benefits as of scourge:;, 
and is especially incompatible with the illusions of counterpoises and compensations, 
which human sophism attributes to Divine wisdom. 



23 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


respect they effect less than Nature in her rude operations ; the sav¬ 
age is more robust than the civilized man, and the rural laborer more 
than the inhabitant of the city. In short, Civilization causes a diverg¬ 
ence and conflict of the two kinds of Wealth, instead of securing their 
convergent action and cooperation. 

I have defined the error committed in a general sense, and shown 
the simple action and the conflict which exist in the two elements of 
physical happiness. Let us now analyze the same simplism in a de¬ 
tail ; let us descend from the whole to a part, to the day’s labor. We 
will examine its value in various degrees of efficiency, and show the 
error of our political economists, who speculate upon the simple day’s 
work , which, under the present system of apathetic industry, is re¬ 
duced to the lowest degree of productiveness, and to the least possible 
activity. 

How do our laborers work ? They seek only to avoid their tasks ; 
they idle if the employer is absent 5 the work is doubled if he super¬ 
vises it strictly. 

A military engineer, overseeing a body of soldiers at work, re¬ 
marked to me: “ There are forty of these fellows engaged, yet the 
work does not advance.” But forty robust men, I replied, should ac¬ 
complish something. “ Pooh,” said he, “ they scarcely do the task of 
five good laborers ; they work as a punishment, without remuneration, 
and do the least they can.” The same comparison may be instituted 
between the workmen of Civilization and those of Association. We 
shall see that forty hired laborers of the former order do not accom¬ 
plish more than will be effected by five men of the latter order. 

We will now examine the incidents which diminish the efficiency 
and the product of the labor of .hired workmen; we will point out 
the drawbacks to Industry that at present exist, and examine the 
stimulants which Association will apply. 

INCREASE OP THE FIRST POWER. 

The Spirit of Property, aided by equity and probity in industrial relations. 

The spirit of individual property is one of the strongest incentives 
to labor that exists in Civilization ; we may, without exaggeration, es¬ 
timate the product of the labor of the proprietor at double that of ihe 
servile labor of the' hired workman. We have daily proofs of this ; 
workmen, who were slow and awkward when they were working for 
wages, become prodigies of diligence when they work for thetaselves. 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


20 


The first problem, then, for political economy to solve is to trans¬ 
form all hired, laborers into proprietors or cointerested associates. This 
would double the present product of the day’s labor, and secure the 
advantages of more rapid execution. 

But as the class of hired laborers compose but about three-quarters 
of the working population, how can we increase the product of the 
labor of the other quarter, that of employers, so as to double the 
amount ? 

Omitting minor means, such as exemption from the necessity of 
overseeing their men, and active participation in works which they 
now merely inspect, I will confine myself to the most efficient lever, 
that of perfect probity in industrial operations. 

If fidelity and honesty could be secured on the part of agents, it 
would be sufficient to induce employers to undertake an infinity of 
works in agriculture and manufactures, of which they now dare not 
even think. I have remarked, in speaking of fruit orchards, that twenty 
times as many fruit trees would be planted, if there was a guarantee 
against theft, the ignorance of workmen, and other drawbacks ; and it’ 
in addition, capital could be obtained at non-usurious rates, as it will 
be in the Combined Order, when the reign of commercial and stock 
speculation comes to an end. 

These two means—probity and the sentiment of property — will be 
more than sufficient to double the value, as to product, of the day’s 
labor; on this hypothesis, a province or state, containing a million of 
inhabitants, will produce as much as one that now contains two mil¬ 
lions. 

INCREASE OF THE SECOND POWER. 

Extension of Material Facilities, and application of proper Social Arrangements. 

1 have spoken of a ten and twenty-fold increase of production in 
certain branches by the employment of proper mechanical facilities. 
By adding the profit to be derived from general Unities and a true 
system of Commercial Exchanges, we may safely double the preceding 
estimate, as to product, and raise it from two to four. In this case, 
the million of men will be equal in productiveness to four millions ; 
or the day’s labor, now valued, we will suppose, at one dollar, will be 
worth four dollars. 

Let us give an example,' taken from irrigation, a branch of mate¬ 
rial facilities. It would of itself double, on an average, the product of 



30 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


warm countries, such as Spain and the States bordering on the Medi¬ 
terranean, the crops of which are ruined when the rains fail. Other 
countries, for want of irrigation, oblain but a half or quarter crop, and 
are obliged to abandon the cultivation of many objects suited to the 
soil, which a supply of water would enable them to grow — a supply 
that could easily be secured by artificial ponds and reservoirs on 
heights with small canals to distribute the water. 

A general system of irrigation, supplying water at all points re¬ 
quired— a work of inestimable value—would be but one of the thou¬ 
sand industrial achievements of the Combined Order. 

MEANS OP INCREASE OF THE THIRD POWER. 

Ardor and Enthusiasm, generated by the Serial Order. 

A labor, performed from calculation, yields, even when actively 
prosecuted, hardly the half of what it would produce, if performed 
from passion and enthusiasm. Impassioned labor is the source of dex¬ 
terity, industrial energy and ardor, and of prodigies surprising to those 
even who perform them. It will alone suffice to double the product, 
already greatly increased. Thus a day’s labor, the product of which 
is rendered four-fold by the preceding means, will be increased to 
eight-fold under the stimulant which enthusiasm will impart to it. 
Enthusiasm and passion are permanent attributes of the Passional Se¬ 
ries ; they overcome all obstacles, and give rise to a degree of activi¬ 
ty and skill which noble sentiments only can create, — stimulants that 
are wholly wanting in Civilized industry, in which the low motive of 
pecuniary gain alone impels man to labor. 

MEANS OF INCREASE OF THE FOURTH POWER. 

Return of the Non-producing Classes to Productive Labor. 

What, in Civilization, is the number of efficient and productive la¬ 
borers ? It does not exceed a third of the population. I have shown 
elsewhere that a workman, useful in appearance, performs often only a 
negative work when he erects a division wall or a fence, which is not 
a product, possessing real and positive value. 

In comparing the labors of Civilization with those of the Combined 
Order, we shall find that two-thirds of our population are non-pro¬ 
ducers or negative-producers , as the following table will show : 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


31 


TABLE OF UNPRODUCTIVE CLASSES IN CIVILIZATION. 


• Domestic 
~ Nou-producers. 

I. Women, 
i 2. Children, 
o 3. Servants. 

< 



Social Non-producers. 

Armies. 

Fiscal agents. 
Manufacturers in part. 
The commercial class. 
The transporting class. 


§ Accessory Non-producers. 

[c 7i 

9. Forced idlers. 

^ 10. Sophists. 

•§ 11. The idle rich. 

o 

tS 12. Outcasts, 
o 


Pivots 


5 

} 


Agents of positive destruction. 
Agents of negative creation. 


ANTERIOR DIVISION — DOMESTIC NON-PRODUCERS. 

1. The three-quarters of the Women of cities and a half of those 
of the country are unproductive, owing ta their absorption in compli¬ 
cated household labors. Their day’s work is, in consequence, estimated 
by political economists at but a fifth of that of man. 

2. The three-quarters of Children, wholly unproductive in cities, 
and of but little utility in the country, owing to their careless and de¬ 
structive propensities. 

3. The three-quarters of Servants, now rendered necessary by the 
system of isolated households, and by industrial incoherence; they 
would become unnecessary in Association. 

These three classes, connected with the household, form a division 
by themselves in the series of non-producers. They will cease to be 
unproductive in an order in which a judicious division of labor, and a 
proper employment of sexes and ages will reduce to a fifth the num¬ 
ber of persons now occupied in the immensely complicated labors of 
the existing system of separate households and isolated families. 

INTERIOR DIVISION — SOCIAL NON-PRODUCERS. 

4. Armies and Navies, which withdraw from production the most 
robust portion of the young population, and waste the larger portion of 
the public revenue, predisposing the population they absorb to idleness 
and immorality, by forcing it to sacrifice, in a parasitic function, those 
years which it should employ in acquiring habits and a knowledge of 
industry. 

The machine, called an army, is occupied in an unproductive man¬ 
ner, while wailing to be employed destructively. This second charac¬ 
teristic will be spoken of hereafter; we here consider the army only in 
its unproductive character. 


32 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


5. The legion of Fiscal Agents. The Custom House alone ab¬ 
sorbs in France, for example,. twenty-four thousand men. If we add 
the assessors, tax-gatherers, clerks in the different departments for col¬ 
lecting and disbursing the revenue, coast and other guards, we have 
an army of unproductive employees, that would be suppressed at once 
in the Combined Order, in which each Association collects and remits 
on a given day its proportion of the national tax. 

6. The full half of Manufacturers, now considered useful, but 
who are relatively unproductive, owing to the bad quality of the arti¬ 
cles manufactured; if general excellence existed in this branch of 
industry, it would reduce the wear and the consequent necessity 
of manufacturing to one-half, and often to three-quarters, especially 
in works undertaken for the Government, which every one seeks to 
dupe. 

7. The nine-tenths of Merchants and Commercial Agents ; they 
would become unnecessary under the commercial system of the Com¬ 
bined Order, which would abolish the complication that now exists, 
and effect commercial exchanges with a tenth of the number of per¬ 
sons at present employed. This new commercial organization is one 
of the finest features of Association ; I regret that I can not give a de¬ 
scription of it in the present work, devoted to preliminary descriptions, 
and to an explanation of industrial and domestic arrangements. 

8. The' two-thirds of the Agents of Transportation by sea and 
by land, who are erroneously included in the commercial class, and 
who, to the defect of complicated transportation, add that of hazardous 
transportation, particularly by sea, where imprudence and the want of 
skill increase ten-fold the number of shipwrecks. 

We may, in this category, place smuggling, which increases greatly 
the number of useless operations and parasitic agents. 

POSTERIOR DIVISION — ACCESSORY NON-PRODUCERS. 

9. Legal, accidental and voluntary Idlers, — persons unoccupied 
from want of work, or for purposes of amusement. As to the latter 
cause of idleness, it would cease, if' Industry were rendered attractive ; 
persons would not abandon work in the pursuit of pleasure, • as they 
now do ; at present we see, in our manufacturing towns, the opera¬ 
tives add what is termed blue Monday to the legal day of rest or 
Sunday, thus doubling the period of unoccupied time in the week. 
We may also include holydays, festivals and celebrations of all kinds, 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


33 


which would not be spent in idleness in an Order in which indus¬ 
trial pursuits are more agreeable than the fetes and balls of Civiliza¬ 
tion. 

In the waste of time, w r e must take into calculation accidental stop¬ 
pages ; if the employer is absent, the workmen stop ; if they see a 
man or a bird pass, they are all agog, resting on their spades and 
looking on for diversion : twenty or thirty times a day they thus lose 
five minutes. Their week’s work is hardly equal to four full days. 
How much loss of time in the absence of Attractive Industry ! Prison¬ 
ers are a class of forced idlers; the sick the same. There will not ex¬ 
ist, in Association, a tenth part of the disease that exists in Civiliza¬ 
tion. Thus disease, although to some extent inevitable, is susceptible 
of an enormous reduction. Of the persons who are necessarily idle 
from sickness, nine are uselessly withdrawn from industry by the ef¬ 
fect of the Civilized regime — nine who, in the Combined Order, would 
be well, and industrially active — which we say without intending to 
displease the doctors. 

10. Sophists ; and first, controversial writers of all kinds, and pro¬ 
fessional politicians, together with those who, at their instigation, engage 
in party controversies and quarrels. 

The list of controversalists and sophists extends much further than 
would at first be supposed ; speaking of jurisprudence alone, which 
seems an excusable form of sophistry, if the Combined Order did not 
engender a twentieth part of the law-suits which now take place, and 
if to settle them, there existed means as speedy as ours are slow and 
complicated, it follows that nineteen-twentieths of the members of the 
bar are parasites, as well as the witnesses and others attendant on 
courts of justice. 

11. The idle rtch, the upper and fashionable classes of Civiliza¬ 
tion— persons passing their lives in doing nothing. Add to them their 
servants, valets and others, who attend on them ; for they who serve 
non-producers are themselves unproductive. 

12. Outcasts, persons in open rebellion against industry and the 
laws, customs and morals of society. Such' are professional gamblers, 
lottery venders, chevaliers d’ Industrie , public women, beggars, rogues, 
brigands and others, the number of which tends less than ever to 
decrease, and the repression of which requires the maintenance of a 
vast body of policemen and other agents, who are equally unproduc¬ 
tive. 


34: 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


PIVOTAL CLASSES. 

Direct. Agents op positive destruction 5 those engaged in War, 
as also those engaged in the Monopoly of grain ; the latter create arti¬ 
ficial famines, which often are as destructive as war itself. Civiliza¬ 
tion bestows its honors on the great monopolists and commercial 
operators, and protects them, as it encourages the most destructive 
inventions of a military character. (The military classes appear twice 
in the table ; here as engaged in war, in destruction ; and at No. 4, 
as idlers and -unproductive agents. It is not a repetition, but a dif¬ 
ference of occupation, a double character, requiring two distinct para¬ 
graphs.) 

Inverse. Agents op negative creation. I have already shown 
that they are excessively numerous ; that work like division walls and 
fences, are relatively unproductive ; others are valueless, owing to bad 
construction, such as buildings that fall down ; roads and bridges that 
are badly located, and require to be reconstructed ; a third kind are 
indirectly injurious, as, for example, the cutting down of a forest, 
which inflicts a serious injury on the country, — one often greater than 
the ravages of war, which can be repaired ; a fourth kind react inju¬ 
riously on certain classes of society, like the invention of some new 
fashion, which throws thousands of workmen out of employment, and 
reduces them to beggary. 

In speculating upon the return of these various classes of non-pro¬ 
ducers, whose labor Association would profitably employ, to produc¬ 
tion, we could again triple the general product of Industry, for the 
number of non-producers in Civilization is at least two-thirds of the 
population, and probably this estimate is too low; it is certain that 
an appropriate application of the labor of women, children and ser¬ 
vants, who form the first division of the table, to productive labor, 
would double or nearly double the product of industry. Now, as 
they compose but three classes of non-producers, we' may safely esti¬ 
mate that the labor of the other eleven classes would at least triple 
the general product. 

We have not yet enumerated all the means of increasing wealth; 
others could be mentioned, and of a very efficient character, such, for 
example, as: 

5. The increase of the Health and Strength of Man, and of the 
animal and vegetable creations. To judge of this as regards man, 
we must wait for the Treatise on Integral education, in which I shall 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


35 


show that the Harmonic man of the Combined Order will possess three 
times the strength of the Civilized man. The improvement of animals 
will, likewise, be very great. A means as powerful as this of increas¬ 
ing production would seem to authorize us to double the preceding 
estimate of the future product of Association, but then it would be 
necessary to carry it from twenty-four to forty-eight; at this point, 
however, such estimates appear absurd $ we will therefore leave them 
aside. 

6. Improvement of the Climate and the Temperature of the earth 
by the systematic cultivation of its entire surface. The improved tem¬ 
perature, which will result from such cultivation, will secure three 
crops where but one is now obtained, and will render the navigation 
of the oceans perfectly safe by extirpating the causes of violent storms 
and hurricanes. This will be another source of a greatly increased 
product. 

7. Transitional means of increase. This means will consist in se¬ 
curing to vegetables a variety of flavors in the place of the single one 
which they now possess. A plot of peas or beans which, at present, 
have all the same taste, will have a complete scale of flavors; some 
the aroma of the rose; others that of the violet, etc.: this influence 
will be exercised, not by artificial manures or by processes of cultiva¬ 
tion, but by the action of Nature alone, by the climate and the electric 
condition of the earth. We reserve this subject for the treatise on 
cosmical influences. 

Pivotal mbans of increase. I shall not speak of these means at 
present. I will merely remark that they will exercise a greater influ¬ 
ence in stimulating man to industry, and consequently in increasing 
its product, than any of those described. But I have already men¬ 
tioned means sufficient to satisfy the most skeptical, that an almost un¬ 
limited increase of the wealth of society is possible. At the same time, 
I have shown the gross oversight of the Political Economists, who 
have speculated only on the simple degree or brute state of human 
Industry. Had they entered into any methodical calculation of the va¬ 
rious methods by which human labor could be rendered more efficient, 
and Wealth increased, they would soon have arrived at conclusions 
that would have led them to seek for a Social Order in which such 
methods could be applied, and in which the vast number of non-pro¬ 
ducers could be drawn to industry and their labor rendered pro¬ 
ductive. 





36 


ECONOMIES OF ASSOCIATION. 


As to readers, wlio may be repelled by these descriptions of the 
future riches of Association, there is a means of familiarizing them¬ 
selves with them ; it is to be found in the religious spirit,—in the 
belief that the subversive Societies which now exist on the earth — the 
Savage, the Barbarian and the Civilized — are not the permanent social 
destiny of man, but are destined to pass away. Our philosophic and 
moral guides, in speaking of the reign of truth, justice and happiness 
on earth, have always exclaimed : “ So much perfection is not made 
for man.” The religious spirit will inspire us with wiser opinions, 
with faith in the social providence of God, in the future reign of unity 
and harmony, and with the belief that if the Combined Order can se¬ 
cure to the human race so much happiness, it is impossible that God, 
who must have foreseen its sublime and beneficent results, should not 
have reserved to man the means of organizing it. 

Were it otherwise, there would be improvidence in the plans of 
the Deity ; Attractions would not be proportional to Destinies. How can 
we suppose such inconsistency on the part of the Supreme Economist, 
who has distributed with such precision all instincts and attractions, 
that no animal seeks any other happiness than its own. If man alone 
desires more, it is because he was not made for the miseries of Civili¬ 
zation, because he has not yet attained to the destiny which God re¬ 
serves him. 

But leaving aside these considerations, what an oversight on the 
part of Political Economists not to have perceived that the three- 
quarters of the Civilized population are non-producers, and that if they 
would teach the world the means of effecting vast economies, and of 
increasing production almost indefinitely, they must discover and es¬ 
tablish a Social Order, different from the present one. Such an Order 
can be no other than the Associative or Combined, for Industry can 
be prosecuted only in two ways: by individuals, operating isolatedly, 
or by associations, operating combinedly and with unity. 


CHAPTER FIFTH. 


ELEMENTARY DESCRIPTION OF THE SERIES IN THEIR 
APPLICATION TO INDUSTRY. 

The organization of Association requires simply a knowledge of the 
art of forming and developing in complete accord a number of pas¬ 
sional Series, fully free, impelled by attraction alone, and occupied 
with the seven following functions: 

1. Domestic Industry. 

2. Agricultural Industry. 

3. Manufacturing Industry. 

4. Commercial Industry. 

5. The art of teaching ; the schools. 

6 . The study and application of the Sciences. 

7. The study and application of the Fine Arts. 

The investigation of the subject may be divided into two parts; 
first, the internal distribution of a Series, and of its groups and sub¬ 
groups ; second, its connection and cooperation with the other Series 
of its own and neighboring Associations. 

The Series of Groups is the order adopted by God in the distribu¬ 
tion of the kingdoms of Nature and of all created things. The Natur¬ 
alists in their theories and classifications have unanimously adopted this 
mode of distribution; they could not have departed from it without 
placing themselves in contradiction with Nature, and falling into con¬ 
fusion. The three kingdoms—the animal, vegetable and mineral — 
present us only Series of Groups. The planets themselves are dis¬ 
tributed in Series, but of a higher and more perfect order than the 
kingdoms; the latter are distributed in free or simple Series — that is. 
in Series, the number of the groups of which is not fixed, but may 
vary. The former are distributed in compound or measured Series : 
this order, more perfect than the simple, is unknown to the astrono¬ 
mers ; hence they can not explain the distributive system existing in 
the planetary worlds, explain why God has given more satellites to 
some planets than to others ; a ring to one and none to another. 

13 


38 


THE SERIES. 


If the passions and characters were not, like the material creations, 
subject to the distribution in Series, Man would be out of unity with 
the Universe. There would be duplicity of system between the mate¬ 
rial and the spiritual worlds. If man would attain to Social Unity, 
he must seek for the means in this Serial order, which God has es¬ 
tablished throughout all creation. 

A Series is a league of several groups, distributed in an ascending 
and descending order; the members of each group are united from 
identity of taste for some branch of industry or some function, and ex¬ 
ecute a part or detail of the work with which the Series is engaged. If 
it cultivates hyacinths or pears, it will form as many 'groups as there are 
varieties of the hyacinth or the pear susceptible of cultivation on its soil. 

These distributions must be regulated by attraction alone. Each 
group must be composed only of members devoted from passion to its 
pursuit; no recourse must be had to such motives as want, interest, 
the idea of duty, and other means of constraint, direct or indirect 

A Series not actuated by attraction, and not methodically distri¬ 
buted, would lack a primordial property— the influence of the extfeme 
groups equal to the double influence of the central group ; it would not 
secure perfect justice in the division of profits, and would not be able 
to perform properly its functions in an Association. 

A Series, operating isolatedly, would possess no value, however 
regularly it might be organized ; a Series, occupied with some agree¬ 
able branch of labor, like the cultivation of flowers, might be organized 
in a large city, but it would be valueless 5 we must have Series, con¬ 
nected and operating combinedly, to the number of forty-five or fifty 
at least ; this is the smallest number with which Industry' can be ren¬ 
dered attractive and a trial of Association successfully made. 

The Passional Series require discord as well as accords; they 
make use of disparities of character, of taste, of fortune, of knowledge, 
etc. The elements with which a Series works are contrasted and grad¬ 
uated inequalities ; it requires as many dissonances or antipathies as 
accords or sympathies, like music, in which an accord is formed by 
excluding as many notes as are employed. 

Discords are so necessary in a passional Series, that each of its 
groups should be in dissonance or antipathy with the two contiguous 
groups, and in graduated dissonance with the s ;b-contiguous ; it is as 
in music in which each note is in discord with its two contiguous 
notes : D is in discord with C sharp and E flat. 


THE SERIES. 


39 


Besides creating an attraction for industry, and establishing a math¬ 
ematical division of profits, the passional Series produce other and 
magnificent effects in social harmony, such as emulation, justice, 

TRUTH, DIRECT ACCORD, INVERSE ACCORD, UNITY. 

Emulation , securing to every product the highest degree of perfec¬ 
tion. 

Justice, securing to every individual, encouragement, equitable re¬ 
muneration and advancement. 

Truth , spontaneously exercised, and in addition rendered necessary 
by the impossibility of practicing any deceit. 

Direct Accord , by leagues formed from identity and contrast of tastes. 

Indirect Accord , by absorption of individual antipathies in collective 
affinities. 

Unity of Action, or concurrence of the Series in promoting all 
operations which tend to harmony and unity. 

The Civilized system generates properties of a directly opposite 
character, such as languor, injustice, fraud, discord, duplicity. 

The passional Series are never actuated by imaginary and illusive 
incentives; they act only from motives that are really attractive, and 
combine ordinarily a four-fold charm: two for the senses and two for 
the soul; or at least one pleasure for the senses and one for the soul. 
In functions that are incompatible with the pleasure of the senses, 
they combine two for the soul. 

A passional Series is regular in its organization, and acquires the 
properties just mentioned, only when the three following conditions 
are fulfilled : 

1. Compactness; this condition requires that the groups of a Series 
should operate on varieties very nearly alike or closely allied. Seven 
groups, cultivating seven very different pears, such as the Good Chris¬ 
tian, the white Butter, the Rousselet, the Messire Jean, etc., could not 
form a regular Series ; neither sympathy nor antipathy, neither rivalry 
nor combination would exist between the groups, and that for want of 
compactness of varieties, such as would exist, for example, between three 
varieties of the Butter pear — the white, the gray and the green. The 
passion of Emulation would find no field of action, and this is one of 
the three forces which direct the Passional Series. 

2. Short periods of Occupation; the longest should be limited to 
two hours. Without this condition, an individual could not engage in 
a sufficient number of Series — about thirty — to become interested in 


40 


THE SERIES. 


the general affairs of his Association. As a consequence, the perfect 
agreement which should exist in the division of profits, would be de¬ 
stroyed, and a system of attractive industry could not be created. 
Prolonged occupations would violate the Passion of Alternatism, or the 
love of variety and change, which is a second of the three motors that 
regulate the play and action of the Series ; it furnishes a counterpoise 
to excesses by varying pursuits several times during the day. 

3. Minute division of labor and execution of details. Each member 
of a group will execute but one detail of the work on which the 
group is engaged. If a branch of Industry gives rise to five or six 
different operations, the group engaged upon it will apply to the work 
as many sub-groups, which will select the different branches according 
to their tastes. The Civilized method, in obliging a man to execute 
all the parts of a work, deadens the action of the passion, which I 
will call the Composite , the love of enthusiasm, and the third of the 
passional forces which govern and direct the Series. 

To sum up : the operation of the Series may be reduced to a pre¬ 
cise and fixed rule, which is to secure the free and natural action of 
the three distributive Passions above mentioned by employing the 
three means we have just explained, — Compactness, Short Occupa¬ 
tions, Detailed Execution. These three modes of prosecuting Indus¬ 
try are in reality but the three passions in action, their natural effects. 

I will explain this organization more fully in subsequent chapters ; 
it is advisable to state it thus succinctly at the outset in order to show 
that there is nothing uncertain or arbitrary in the theory of Attractive 
Industry and Passional Harmony ; in effect: 

The problem is to secure the free and natural action of the twelve 
radical passions of the soul; in default thereof, oppression, not har¬ 
mony, would exist The twelve radical passions tend to form Series, 
in which two classes, the Senses and the Affections, are directed by a 
third class, the Combining or Distributing. It remains then for us to 
examine whether, in forming Series of groups, in which the three dis¬ 
tributive Passions find a free action, we shall succeed in securing a 
like free action and development to the other nine passions. In case 
we do, all the twelve being developed and satisfied in each individual, 
happiness—which results from the full development of the passions — 
will be secured to all. This doctrine, opposed to all Civilized systems, 
is the only one which is conformable to the desires of Nature and the 
presumable views of God, who, we will repeat, would be an unskillful 


THE SERIES. 


41 


mechanician, had ho created the passions to be thwarted and smoth¬ 
ered as they now are under the Civilized regime. 

In the system which I propose, no part is of my invention. I fol¬ 
low Nature’s method, according to which three of the twelve Passions 
regulate the action of the others, by the greatest and most economical 
combination, that of the Series of groups, which is the desire of the 
human heart, and the distribution followed in the entire system of cre¬ 
ation. 




CHAPTER SIXTH. 




NUMBER OF MEMBERS, AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 

The name of Group is given to a knot or assemblage of persons 
if any kind, even to a collection of idlers, united to talk over the 
news of the day, without aim or interest. 

In the theory of the passions, by a Group is to be understood 
the union of a number of persons, leagued together from affinity of 
taste for some pursuit or function. Three men, we will suppose, are 
engaged in an operation, which is pleasing to two, but not to the 
third ; in this case they do not form a group, for identity of taste as to 
the pursuit does not exist between them. 

The two, to whom the work is pleasing, form a false group. To 
be properly adjusted ‘and balanced, and susceptible of passional equi¬ 
librium, a group must consist of at least three members, and must— 
somewhat analogous to a pair of scales — comprise three forces, the cen¬ 
tral one of which holds in balance the two extremes. In short, there 
can be no group with less than three persons, possessing similar tastes 
for the branch of industry, art or science in which they are engaged. 

It will be answered : “ If the group is not in accord as to its in¬ 
dustrial taste, it will be so.in the’more important particular of friend¬ 
ship.” In this case the Group is defective, for it is simple; it is 
reduced to one tie, and that of a spiritual nature. To render it com¬ 
pound, a tie of the senses must be added, that is, a work which 
pleases the three members. 

As the Series are formed of groups, we must first of all study the 
art of forming groups. Of this art, nothing is known; the mechanism 
of the simplest group of three is not understood, much less that of thirty. 

The passions impel human beings to form, in their social relations, 
series of groups; and yet the groups have never been an object of 
study. What idea can we hope to obtain of the nature of man, if we 
neglect to analyse the elementary action of the passional forces within 
him. 


NUMBER OF MEMBERS. 


43 


The Civilizees, tending from instinct to the false, inclining to pre¬ 
fer the false to the true, have chosen for pivot of their Social system a 
Group which is essentially false ; it is the conjugal couple ; a group 
which is false from its number, limited to two; false from the absence 
of liberty, and false from the divergencies or dissidences of tastes, 
breaking out often the first month, as regards expenses, the table, the 
society frequented, and a hundred trifling details, like the degree of 
warmth of rooms. Now, if we are ignorant of the means of harmo¬ 
nizing the primary groups, those composed of two or three persons, 
we shall be still less able to harmonize large numbers. 

I have spoken only of sub-groups, composed of three members ; a 
full group , in social mechanics, must be composed of at least seven, for 
it must contain three subdivisions, or sub-groups, the middle one of 
which must be stronger than the two extreme groups, and hold the 
balance between them. The group, of seven furnishes the three divis¬ 
ions— 2, 3, 2 — occupied with three parts or details of a work or func¬ 
tion. The group of two, which is false in isolated action, becomes 
admissible in its connection with other groups. 

If the center, composed of three persons, balances the sub-groups, 
composed each of two persons, and forming the extremes, it is because 
the center is always occupied with the most attractive branch of a 
work ; it is then superior in number by 1, and superior in attraction by 
1 . Its influence is thus rendered equal to that of the two extreme groups. 

A group of six members, forming the divisions 2, 2, 2, would be 
badly balanced ; its center would be as weak in number as each wing ; 
now, in the organization of the groups, the law to be observed is that 
the center must be strengthened, and the wings rendered unequal in 
number, giving to the ascending wing more members than to the de¬ 
scending ; we give examples of three divisions, employing the numbers 
12 , 16 and 24. 

12 Members divided by 4, 5, 3. 

16 Members divided by 2, 3 — 2, 3, 2 — 2, 2. 

24 Members divided by 2, 4, 2 — 3, 4, 2 — 2, 3, 2. 

These divisions must not be established by the order of a leader, 
but by attraction, by a spontaneous choice of functions. Attraction 
alone must impel twenty-four persons, prosecuting some branch of in¬ 
dustry, to form the nine sub-groups above given, and to select and 
execute as many parts or details of the work. This I have termed 
the system of detailed Execution. 


44 


NUMBER OF MEMBERS. 


The Series are distributed and arranged in the same manner as 
the groups; they operate on groups as the latter operate on individu¬ 
als ; they must contain at least five groups. Twenty-four is the lowest 
number with which a complete Series can be organized : the division, 
above given, of twenty-four members fulfills the seven following con¬ 
ditions. 

The three groups, 2,.4, 2 — 3, 4, 2 — 2, 3, 2, unequal in numbers. 

The central group stronger than each of the extreme groups. 

The ascending wing stronger than the descending wing. 

The two extreme groups divided into three parts or sub-groups. 

The smallest group containing at least seven members. 

The sub-groups strengthened at the center. 

The three groups distributed in a regular progression, 7, 8, 0. 

This Series then is rigorously exact, although limited to the small¬ 
est number possible; 23 would fulfill neither the third nor the sixth 
condition. 

A group can be organized with seven members, but its organiza¬ 
tion is more perfect with nine, as in the latter case a pivot or leader 
and a transitional member can be added; thus: 


Transition 1 

Ascending wing 2 
Center 3 

Descending wing 2 
Pivot 1 


transitional member. 

learners. 

adepts. 

novices. 

director. 


This distribution of centers, wings, transitions and pivots, is estab¬ 
lished naturally in all industrial and social unions in which the passions 
and instincts possess freedom of action and development. Man, being 
from instinct an enemy of equality and uniformity, is inclined to a 
system of ranks and grades, to the principle of hierarchy and progres¬ 
sion ; this graduated scale establishes itself naturally in a Series of 
nine groups, as it does in a group of nine members, if full liberty 
reigns in its operations. 

Seven and twenty-four being the minimum numbers with which a 
complete group and a complete series can be formed, it will be necessa¬ 
ry, in order to secure the active cooperation of the seven and the twen¬ 
ty-four members, to supply the place of any that may be absent or 
sick ; for this reason, it will be necessary to increase the group to 
twelve and the series to forty members; by which means also direc¬ 
tors and sub-directors, transitions and sub-transitions may be added. 


AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 


45 


In every Series, the ascending or upper wing is composed of groups 
operating on the stronger or more masculine kinds or varieties; the 
descending or lower wing on the lighter and less important kinds ; the 
center on the finer, nobler and more attractive kinds, because it must, 
as I have remarked, counterbalance the two wings by the superiority 
of number and of the attractiveness of the variety to which it is de¬ 
voted. I will give an example, taken from a series of pear-growers. 

Transition. 4 groups cultivating quinces.* 

Ascending wing. 10 groups cultivating hard pears. 

Center. ~ 12 groups cultivating juicy pears. 

Descending wing. 8 groups cultivating mealy pears. 

Divot. 2 groups composed of the directors and staff. 

The Series forming an Association or Phalanx, are divided into nine 
degrees or powers, as follows: 

1. Series of Class. 

2 . “ of Order. 

3. 11 of Genus. 

4. u of Species. 

5. u of Variety. 

6 . u of Sub-variety. 

7. “ of Minute shade. 

Series of a transitional character. 

Series of an infinitesimal character. 

I will not, in this sketch, enter into minute details relating to the 

subject; they can not be treated in a brief manner, as they w r ould not 

be understood ; I reserve them for the body of the treatise. I will, 
however, make a few remarks on two points connected with the rela¬ 
tions of the groups. 

If the serial organization is the basis of a new social world, it is 
because, among other reasons, it creates economies and gives rise to 
profits in operations which, in the present state, would be ruinous ; 
it thus combines economy with elegance and profusion. It would be 
easier, for example, to serve on the tables of an Association thirty 
kinds of a fruit or a vegetable than to serve three ; this profusion be- 


* The quince, according to Fourier, is a transitional fruit, holding a place between, 
and connecting the apple and the pear ; the groups devoted to its cultivation would be 
of a transitional character, holding the same relation to the Series of pear and apple 
growers, as the quince to those two fruits.—E d. 

13* 



46 


NUMBER OF MEMBERS, 

comes economical in the passional Series, as it is one of the means of 
creating an attraction for industry, which could not be created if but 
one or two kinds were cultivated. 

The same remark applies to directors or officers, so costly in Civil¬ 
ization their number is a source of.concord and emulation in the 
Combined Order; they are more productive than the other members ; 
different classes, with distinct duties or functions, will consequently be 
created 5 we will mention two, those who direct practical operations, 
and those who' preside on occasions of etiquette : both are indispens¬ 
able in a Series. 

The officers, who direct industrial operations, are chosen from 
among the experienced and skillful members : those who preside on 
festive occasions and at celebrations, are elected from among the op¬ 
ulent members, who can represent the Series, and give luster to it by 
their munificence. 

In Civilization, officials spend nothing for the governed : on the 
contrary, if a public dinner or a ffite is given, they supervise it, enjoy 
it, but leave the public to pay. 

In the Series, it is different: the officers of etiquette pay for the 
repasts and bear the expense of the fetes, to which the members are 
invited. They contribute also to more important outlays, such as the 
purchase of plants and seed ; their liberality would be ignoble, were 
it limited merely to playing the part of hosts, giving good dinners. 

This double corps of officers exists in the groups as well as in the 
series : each series, each group, has its captain, lieutenant and second 
lieutenant, who are the officers of etiquette; and its director, vice-di¬ 
rector and sub-director, who are the officers of industry. 

In the Series, the position of officer will be held by women and 
children, as well as by men. Each Series will elect its leaders from 
among its members. As many Series are composed mainly of women 
or children, they will not seek their officers among men, except in 
case of necessity. A hundred women who cultivate a field of violets 
for perfumery, will not call upon men to preside over their labors or 
councils ; but if the Series is composed in part of men and children, 
the officers will be elected in proportion from them ; entire liberty of 
choice, however, will exist; utility will be the guide to be followed. 

I pass over various details as to the rank which the Series will 
hold in regard to remuneration ; they will not be classed according to 
the amount they produce; the Series engaged, for example, in the care 


AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 


47 


of the fruit-orchards, although enormously productive, will be one of 
the lowest in the scale of remuneration, as its branch of industry is in 
itself extremely attractive. The Series devoted to the Opera, which is 
now judged superfluous, will be one which will receive the highest 
remuneration, as it is the most useful in education.* 

Another subject which should be treated, but which must be omit¬ 
ted, is the Series and groups of a transitional character. Transitional 
creations, forming links between two distinct genera or species, and 
connecting them, are for the most part disagreeable and repulsive ; 
and yet, regular Series can not be formed without introducing and 
placing, at the two extremes, groups and often sub-groups of a tran¬ 
sitional character. Nature must have esteemed these transitions highly 
necessary, as she has created them in all departments of her domain; 
we see this by the amphibious animals, the ourang-outang, the flying 
fish, the bat, the eel, the quince, and so many others, one of the most 
singular of which is lime, a link between fire and water. 

We will close with a table of a Series of the simple' order, showing 
the accords and discords existing between its groups. We will sup¬ 
pose thirty-two groups, cultivating the different varieties of some fruit 
or vegetable. 

13 

12 14 


11 

15 

10 

X 16 

9 

17 

8 

18 

7 

D 19 

6 

20 

5 

21 

4 Y 

A 22 

. 3 

23 

2 

24 

1 

25 

K 

X N 

X Pivotal group. 

K Ascending transitional group. 

X Counter pivotal group. 

yj Descending transitional group. 

Y Ascending sub-pivotal group. 

D Diffracted Group. 

X Descending sub-pivotal group. 



* The opera, according to Fourier, will comprise the following material harmonies: 
T. Chromatic execution of parts. 





48 


NUMBER OF MEMBERS, 


The affinity or sympathy of contrast takes place between groups 
placed at half the distance of the entire scale from each other ; for ex¬ 
ample, between the groups 1 and 13 j 2 and 14; 5 and 17 ; 9 and 21. 

The sympathy is less strong between 1 and 12 and 14; still less be¬ 
tween 1 and 11 and 15; it goes on thus declining until the half of 
the scale on each' side or a quarter of the entire scale is reached, 
when it ceases ; 13 is not in sympathy with 7 or with 19, still less 
with 8 and 18, at which point a slight antipathy and rivalry begin ; 
they increase between 13 and 9 and 17, and the degrees of discord aug¬ 
ment until a positive antipathy exists between 13 and its two contig¬ 
uous groups, 12 and 14 ; it is a little less strong between 13 and its 
sub-contiguous groups, 11 and 15.* * 

The scale of sympathies and antipathies is not the same with the 
extreme groups, 1 and 3, 23 and 25, as with those of the center ; but 
an examination of these variations would lead us beyond the limits of 
an abridgment ; suffice it to say, that thirty years of study and the 
instinct of the art, have enabled me to understand in all its details 
the mechanism of the passional series, the accords and discords of 
their groups, and the counterpoises to be established at all points of a 
Series. 

The pivotal group ><1 is in sympathy with all the groups, except 
the two sub-pivotal groups Y £. The group X is engaged upon a 
variety, the excellence and superiority of which is so striking (such 
would be the Beurre gris among pears), that the viccinal varieties, 11, 


1. Singing, or measured vocal sounds. 

2. Instruments, or measured artificial sounds. 

3. Poetry, or measured thoughts and words. 

4. Pantomime, or harmony of gesture. 

5. Dancing, or measured movement. 

6 . Gymnastics, or harmonic exercises. 

7. Painting and costume, or harmonic decorations. 

P. Geometrical execution ; harmonic mechanism. 

* By Antipathy is to be understood the dissidence that exists between tastes and 
opinions that are nearly alike, — giving rise to rival pretensions, emulation, party spirit, 
etc. Two groups, cultivating, for example, two varieties of the peach, so nearly alike that 
opinion is divided as to their superiority, will each strive by scientific and superior cul¬ 
tivation to excel each other and carry away the palm ; they will not consequent! v be in 
league, in accord, but in rivalry or discord. We find the principle of dissonance, discord, 
antipathy, everywhere in Nature ; it exists between contiguous colors, notes of music, 
tastes, characters, etc.; at the bottom, it is the principle of individuality, which could 
not exist and be maintained, if dissonance and repulsion did not exist. In the series, 
discords arc absorbed and neutralized by the constant changes of the members of groups 
and by collective affinities. — Ed. 




ANI) TURIN DISTRIBUTION. 


49 


12, 13, 14, 15, consent to cede the precedence to it, and claim only a 
superiority over the contiguous and sub-contiguous varieties which are 
its rivals. 

The sub-pivotal groups Y and \ are in sympathy or accord of con¬ 
trast with each other, as leaders of the two wings, which are in league 
against the center, and in rivalry with it.* 

The counter-pivot X is in sympathy with no other group except 
the pivot ; but it is not in antipathy with any. (In the series of 
pear-growers, the counter-pivotal group would be that cultivating the 
large and hard pear, which is uneatable in its raw state.) 

The group D, devoted to the diffracted variety, is in semi-accord 
with all the other groups. (Diffraction is the inverse image of the 
pivot. The albino, for example, is the diffraction of the white man 
who blackens in the sun, and whose color is a false white ; we pass 
this subject over.) 

The transitional groups, K and yp are in accord with the wingu 
of which they form the extremes, and with those of another series with 
which they are in contact. Thus the group of quince-growers is in 
accord with one wing of the series of apple-growers and one of the 
series of pear-growers. 

I have supposed here a perfectly regular series, cultivating all the 
varieties of a fruit or vegetable. If, from unsuitableness of the soil, it 
cultivated only certain varieties of a species, the accords and dis¬ 
cords might change in degree. But in explaining the rules of the se¬ 
rial mechanism, we must take as examples integral series. 

In all the different kinds of series, — whether of the free or the 
measured orders, — the accords of the passions and the sympathies 
which may appear to be without method, without rules, constitute on 
the contrary a system, regulated 'by geometrical laws. They, who 
have speculated on the nature of man, have, in respect to this piob- 


* The Accord of Identity is formed in music, for example, by the upper and lower 
notes of an octave ; the upper note contains just twice as many vibrations as the lower, 
but the two struck together form to the ear one sound, or at least an accord, — the ac¬ 
cord oj identity. The Accord of Contrast is formed of a third or of a sixth, that is, by 
striking the two notes C E or C G. The notes are different as are blue and orange, but 
they agree perfectly with each other, and form an Accord of Contrast. Thus we find 
two kinds of Accords, one between things which are alike, and which harmonize from 
similarity or identity of nature ; and the other between things which are unlike, but 
which, being complimentary to each other, and agreeing in their nature, harmonize or 
form an accord.—E d. 



50 NUMBER OF MEMBERS, 

lem as to all others, viewed Nature only in the simple mode j they be¬ 
lieve all sympathies permanent; there are permanent, occasional, peri¬ 
odical, etc. The theory of the sympathies constitutes a branch of a 
new scientific world , which the Civilized mind has not explored, but 
the doors of which are not closed, as is supposed. All Nature is an 
immense mechanism of sympathies and antipathies, most methodically 
distributed and regulated, and open to the penetration of genius, pro¬ 
vided it first studies the theory of Passional Attraction and of Associ¬ 
ation 5 that is, the mode of action of the Passions, and the social me¬ 
chanism adapted to them. 


Note.—Fourier uses various signs to indicate the pivots, trans¬ 
itions, etc., of a Series ; we have avoided their use, as he did himself 
in one of his works, as they appear at first sight eccentric, and even 
fanciful. They are, however, when understood, very convenient, and 
greatly facilitate explanations. The sign which he uses to indicate 
Pivots, is M. Whenever it is placed before a member, element or at¬ 
tribute in a Series or in a Table, that member is the pivotal one. By 
the pivot, Fourier understands the highest, most important or the central 
element of a Series; its head or focus. The sun, for example, is the 
pivot of our solar system ; man is the pivot of the animal kingdom, 
and in fact of all the creations on the earth ; a king is the pivot of 
the political system of a nation ; the Pope is the pivot of the Catholic 
church ; a general is the pivot of an army ; white is the pivotal color, 
as all the colors emerge from and unite in it; bread is a pivotal food, as 
it combines with all other kinds. There are different orders of pivots ; 
that is, in a complete Series, there are several pivots, which are to be 
distinguished from each other. Fourier divides them into Direct and 
Inverse, and into Sub-pivots and Counter-pivots. A colonel of a regi¬ 
ment, for example, is a sub-pivot when compared with the general of 
the brigade, who is the pivot. These details can not, however, be un¬ 
derstood until the theory of the Series is explained. To designate 
Transitions, Fourier uses the sign K. Placed before a member or ele¬ 
ment of a Series, it indicates its transitional character. By Transitions 
are to be understood connecting links between two kinds of creations, 
attributes, etc., uniting or connecting them, and avoiding sudden breaks. 
Nature employs them everywhere, as she permits no sudden breaks, 
no complete separations in her progressive system of creation and dis- 



AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 


51 


tribution. The amphibious animals, far example, are links or trans¬ 
itions, connecting the animals that live in the water and those that 
live in the air ; the bat is a transition between the mouse and the 
bird; the quince between the apple and the pear ; birth and death 
are transitions, the one ascending, the other descending ; twilight is a 
transition between day and night; an aid-de-camp is a transitional of¬ 
ficer, as he neither fights nor commands. The transitions combine some 
of the properties of two other creations or things, between which they 
are placed, and are hence of an ambiguous and uncertain character. 
To designate the Simple , Fourier uses the sign ; to designate the 
Compound , the sign p: ; they have been sufficiently explained in the 
course of the work. 

Had science discovered a system of Classification and Distribution, 
applicable to all departments of creation, — which Fourier asserts is 
the Series of Groups, distributed in an ascending and descending order, 
with a center and wings, with pivots and transitions,—it could have 
indicated by a few signs the character, position and function of the 
members or elements of any order of creations, or of any organiza¬ 
tion. For example, to indicate the rank of the varieties of the feline 
species, it would only be necessary to place the sign X before the 
Lion to show that this animal is the head or pivot of the species to 
which it belongs ; by placing the sign K before the Cat, it would indi¬ 
cate that it is, from its instincts, the connecting link between the species 
of beasts of prey of which it is a member, and the peaceful or domes¬ 
tic animals, as it can be domesticated and be made to associate with 
man. The other members of the species—the tiger, leopard, ounce, 
quagga, etc. — constitute the ordinary members of the species, the regu¬ 
lar elements, so to say, of the series. The feline species, as a whole, is 
divided into certain constituent parts, which form the members or ele¬ 
ments composing it; the lion is the pivot; the cat the transition : the 
other animals are the ordinary or regular members of the series. As we 
remarked, the subject can not be made clear without a full explanation 
of the theory of the Series. We have said enough to show that the dis¬ 
tinction of pivots, transitions, etc., is not without a basis in Nature her¬ 
self, and that Fourier in using them conforms to a law of classification, 
which really exists in creation. The system of signs which he uses is 
the following: X Pivot; X Counter-pivot; Y Direct pivot ; & Inverse 
pivot; K Ascending transition j 3 Descending transition ; \> Simple , 
ps Compound. — Ed. 


t 


CHAPTER SEVENTH. 


THE THREE DISTRIBUTIVE PASSIONS, OR THE ORGANIC 
FORCES OF THE SERIES. 

It is not in the material organization of the Series that any serious 
difficulty is to be apprehended. The obstacle to be feared will be 
found in the play or action of certain passions, which our moral theo¬ 
ries would lead us to repress. And yet a Series, the most regularly 
organized, would lose all its properties, such as industrial attraction, 
direct accord of inequalities, indirect accord of antipathies, etc., if the 
three forces, which I have termed the distributive or regulative Pas¬ 
sions, were not developed and called into action. Ifj in a Series, but 
one of the three is thwarted in its action, the Series becomes deranged, 
its accords weakened, its enthusiasm and emulation reduced to a mere 
semblance, and its harmony and equilibrium destroyed, especially in 
the important problem of the division of profits. 

We will now explain briefly the nature of the three regulative 
Passions. 

I will commence with the Alternating Passion ; it is the desire felt 
by the soul of periodical variety, of changes of scene and occupations, 
of contrasted situations, of incidents and novelties calculated to excite 
charm, and to stimulate at the same time the senses and the soul. 

This want is felt moderately from hour to hour, and strongly after 
an interval of two hours. If it is not satisfied, man falls into a state 
of ennui and apathy. 

By means of short occupations or short industrial sessions of an 
hour and a half, or two hours at the most, every one will be enabled, 
during the course of the day, to take part in seven or eight different 
attractive pursuits, to vary them the following day, and join other 
groups. This system is the desire of the eleventh passion—the Alter¬ 
nating — which tends to fly from one occupation or pleasure to another, 
and to avoid the excesses, now committed by the Civilizees, who 
prolong a party or fete for six hours, a labor for ten or twelve, a ball 
all night at the expense of sleep and health. 




THE DISTRIBUTIVE PASSIONS. 


53 


Our pleasures have at present no connection with Industry, and 
are consequently unproductive ; whereas in the Combined Order, they 
will be connected with productive Industry, which will itself be a suc¬ 
cession of pleasures, when rendered attractive. 

To facilitate the frequent changes of occupation which will be ne¬ 
cessary, a spacious and elegant gallery, warmed in winter, and ven¬ 
tilated in summer, will extend along one front of the Palace of the 
Association 5 passages on columns will connect the different ranges of 
buildings, and underground passages will lead to the stables ; by this 
architectural arrangement, the residents can communicate with all parts 
of the edifice, with its public halls, dining-rooms, workshops, and the 
outhouses, without being exposed to changes of temperature, to the 
rain or wet. In the fields, large wagons for fifteen or eighteen persons, 
will be employed to transport the groups. 

Some persons will pretend that these arrangements will be very 
expensive ; they will cost much less than the outer clothing and car¬ 
riages which are rendered necessary by exposure to the cold and wet; 
without taking into the account the colds, inflammations and fevers 
caused by sudden changes of temperature. 

It will also be asserted that the frequent changes of occupation will 
consume a great deal of time; they will .require from five to fifteen 
minutes, — less than a quarter of an hour on an average in Agricultu¬ 
ral pursuits, and half that time in in-door labors. They, who regret 
this loss of time, might regret also that devoted to sleep, and propose 
to suppress it. They do. not know that activity and energy in labor 
are increased by brief periods of repose ; the Attractive Industry of 
the future, prosecuted from passion, will be ardent; men will do more 
in, one hour than is now accomplished in three by our hired laborers, 
who are slow, awkward and without interest in their work, idling 
whenever an opportunity presents. In the Combined Order, the ardor 
of people in Industry would become hurtful, were it not frequently 
tempered by the suspensions which a change of occupation requires. 
I say this in answer to critics, who judge of the operations of Associ¬ 
ation by the habits and methods of Civilization. 

I now pass to the examination of the two other regulative passions. 

The Emulative and the Composite are in perfect contrast; the first 
is calculating and speculative in its character and action ; the second, 
exhilarating, productive of enthusiasm, of exaltation, and of blind 
zeal and devotion. 


54 


THE DISTRIBUTIVE PASSIONS. 


The Emulative gives rise to party spirit, to the love of manage, 
ment, diplomacy and intrigue ; it is strong, for example, with the ambi¬ 
tious, with courtiers, corporate bodies and the commercial classes. Its 
distinctive feature is to combine calculation with passion. With the 
diplomatist or intriguer, all is calculation ; every act, however trifling, 
is performed with reflection, and at the same time with celerity. The 
ardor of this passion then is controlled by reflection, forming a con¬ 
trast with the unreflecting ardor and enthusiasm which are character¬ 
istic of the Composite. They stimulate the groups of an industrial 
Series by two contrasted impulses. 

The love of intrigue is so imperious a want in man, that in the ab¬ 
sence of real intrigues it seeks for artificial ones, in games of chance, 
in theatrical representations, and in works of fiction. If a company is 
assembled, means must be provided for satisfying this passion—by put¬ 
ting cards in their hands, or by some other device. There is not a 
more unhappy being than a courtier, exiled lo a provincial town, where 
his love of intrigue finds no field of action. A rich merchant who, re¬ 
tiring from business, suddenly withdraws from commercial schemes and 
speculations, which are active and exciting, becomes oflfrn, in spite of 
his fortune, the most melancholy of men. 

The principal function of the passion, in the Serial mechanism, is 
to excite rivalry, create dissonance between groups so nearly alike as 
to dispute the palm of excellence, and balance suffrages. We shall not 
see three groups, cultivating three varieties of the butter pear, form an 
accord ; on the contrary, these groups, occupied with contiguous vari¬ 
eties. are in rivalry and discord 5 it is the same with three groups cul¬ 
tivating the yellow, gray and green pippin. 

Discord between contiguous shades or varieties is a general law 
of Nature ; in colors, scarlet does not harmonize with its contiguous 
tints, cherry red, pale red and orange red, but it harmonizes with its 
opposites, dark blue, dark green, black and white. In music, the note 
D does not accord with C sharp, or E flat, which are contiguous to it, 
nor with C and E natural, which are sub-contiguous. We repeat, in 
social harmony, discords are as necessary as accords. 

But discords can not take place between groups, occupied with dis¬ 
tinct varieties, like those cultivating the peal-pear and the orange-pear. 
There exists between these two little pears a difference too striking to 
admit of hesitation on the part of judges ; they will say that they are 
both good, but too little alike to allow of comparison; as a consequence, 


THE DISTRIBUTIVE PASSIONS. 


55 


rivalry and party spirit can not be excited between the two groups 
which cultivate them ; the Emulative finds no field of action. 

We must then, in every series, whether of an industrial or other 
character, form a scale of functions or varieties nearly alike—the 
Compact scale as I have elsewhere called it. It is the means of seem¬ 
ing a free development and action to the passion of Emulation, of ex¬ 
citing great ardor in all works, a close intimacy among the members 
of each group, and of giving to every product the highest degree of 
perfection. 

We should fail, however, in securing this latter result, if, on the 
part of consumers as well as of producers, great refinement of taste 
were not cultivated. Of what use would it be to perfect to the high¬ 
est possible degree every variety of product, if the population of the 
Combined Order was uniform in its tastes, indifferent as to what it 
consumed, eating only to satisfy the appetite, and interdicting itself 
out of deference to moral precepts, all pleasures of the senses? Un¬ 
der such circumstances, general perfection in industry would fail for 
want of appreciation ; the emulative spirit would lose its activity among 
the groups of producers and preparers; agriculture would sink back 
into the rude state in which we see it in Civilization, where, out of a 
hundred persons, scarcely one is found capable of judging of the excel¬ 
lence of products ; hence it is that so little care and attention are given 
to perfecting qualities, and that most articles of consumption are now 
of so inferior a kind. 

The Serial system must be applied to consumption as well as to 
production ; it would fail if it were not. It is very easy to introduce 
it into the former; it is only necessary to establish two scales or se¬ 
ries of tastes, one operating on the different modes of preparation; the 
other, on the different qualities. Groups will be formed, each with an 
inclination for some special mode of preparation or some particular 
quality ; and the series, both in the kitchens and at the tables, will be 
organized. 

We come now to the third of the regulative passions, the Composite , 
which establishes accords and sympathies between groups and the mem¬ 
bers of groups, and creates enthusiasm and exaltation. The passion, 
we have described, the Emulative or party spirit, is not alone sufficient 
to stimulate the groups in their works j we must put in play the oppo¬ 
site force or motor, the Composite, with its sympathetic leagues and en¬ 
thusiastic zeal,—the most romantic of the passions, the enemy of ealeu- 


56 THE DISTRIBUTIVE PASSIONS. 

lation and of reflection. This passion will be called into action, and 
applied to the industry of the Combined Order ; it will find there a 
field for its play and development; it will be one of the stimulants 
that will render industry attractive. Together with the Emulative, it 
will replace the low incentives, such as the fear of want or starvation, 
the necessity of feeding helpless children, the dread of the poorhouse, 
which,' in Civilization, impel the masses to labor. 

Instead of such abject incentives, the Combined Order will, by the 
constant employment of the three regulative passions, stimulate the in¬ 
dustrial groups by a four-fold charm, — two of the senses, and two of 
the soul, thus creating four kinds of sympathy between the members 
of a group. 

The two sympathies of the soul will consist in the Accords of Iden¬ 
tity and of Contrast. 

There will be sympathy or accord of identity between the mem¬ 
bers of a group, for the reason that they will be necessarily identical 
in opinion and feeling in respect to a pursuit which they have chosen 
from passion, and which they can quit when they desire. The accord 
of identity becomes a potent charm with one who sees himself aided 
by a group of zealous cooperators, intelligent and affable : it is as 
agreeable as the association with the coarse, mercenary and awkward 1 
hirelings of Civilization is repulsive. Cooperation between polite and 
friendly persons excites ardor in the work or function with which they 
are engaged, a desire to renew the work, and to meet at repasts of 
the group at times when industrial operations are suspended. 

The second charm of the soul isjthat derived from accords of contrast; 

I have said that to create it among the groups of a Series, the groups 
must be distributed in a compact scale, and occupied with consecutive 
and contiguous shades or varieties; this distribution gives rise to ac¬ 
cords and friendly leagues between groups of a different character, as 
it does to discord or rivalry between contiguous groups. 

Besides these two sympathies of the soul, one of identity, the other 
of contrast, an industrial group must be stimulated by two other mo¬ 
tives, which charm the senses; the first, the excellence and perfection 
jOf its products, eliciting the praises of judges; the second, the charm 
caused by the display, the elegance and refinement that exist in the en¬ 
tire Series. 

To sum up : if the three distributive, combining and classifying 
passions, which are the organic forces of the Series, are not developed 





THE DISTRIBUTIVE PASSIONS. 


57 


combinedly, Industrial Attraction will not be created, or if it appears, 
it will die out by degrees and cease. 

Thus, to render Industry attractive, the condition to be fulfilled is 
to form series of groups, subordinated to the play of the three distrib¬ 
utive passions ; they must be : 

Rivalized by the Emulative , which creates discords, generous ri¬ 
valry and competition between contiguous groups, provided the groups 
are distributed in a compact scale, or scale formed of tastes and func¬ 
tions very closely allied. 

Exalted by the Composite , which creates accords and sympathies 
that charm both the senses and the soul, and generates enthusiasm and 
devotion among the members of a group. 

Connected or interlinked by the Alternating or Modulating passion, 
which is the support of the two others, as it maintains their activity 
by means of short occupations, and the choice of pursuits and plea¬ 
sures, thus preventing satiety and lukewarmness. 

I insist on the importance of this latter passion, the most proscribed 
of the three, — on the necessity of short and varied occupation, the ab¬ 
sence of which in our Civilized system of Industry* is its condemna¬ 
tion ; let us observe its effects in a material and a passional sense. 

In a Material sense, it conduces to health and vigor. Health ne¬ 
cessarily suffers if a uniform labor, like weaving, sewing or writing, 
which does not exercise successively all parts of the body, is prose¬ 
cuted the entire day through. Even active occupations, like those of 
agriculture, are injurious when thus prolonged ten or twelve hours 
a day; one exhausts the members and vicera;.the other viciates the 
solids and fluids. 

The evil is increased, if the labor, whether active or passive, is 
continued for months and years. In some branches of industry, we 
see the working classes afflicted by special diseases, caused by the na¬ 
ture of their labors ; while other branches, such as the manufacture 
of various chemical products, are the death of the workman, and from 
the simple fact of prolonged application ; he would be exempt from 
danger if the system of short periods of labor, say of two hours’ du¬ 
ration, was introduced, and the labor repeated but two or three times 
a week. 

The wealthy classes, for want of this system, are subject to other 
diseases, such as apoplexy, rheumatism and the gout. Obesity, which 
is common among the rich, denotes a radical defect in the equilibrium 


58 


THE DISTRIBUTIVE PASSIONS. 


of the system, and a mode of life, which, in occupations and pleasures, 
is contrary to Nature. Perfect health is only to be attained by this 
continual alternation of occupations, which, exercising successively 
every part of the body and every faculty of the mind, maintains both 
in activity and equilibrium. 

In a passional sense, the Alternating passion produces accord 
and agreement between characters, even of an opposite nature: for ex¬ 
ample, A and B are two persons of entirely dissimilar dispositions; 
but it happens that among the groups to which A belongs, there is a 
third in which his interests coincide with those of B, and in which he 
derives advantages of various kinds from the tastes of B, although the 
opposite of his own. It is the same with the tastes of B as regards 
A; as a consequence, without a real friendship existing between them, 
there is esteem, and an exchange of good offices. 

Thus interest, which separates friends in Civilization, may be made 
to unite enemies even in the Combined Order ; antipathetic characters 
are conciliated by indirect cooperation, resulting from the connection 
and alternation of pursuits, which is the effect of short occupations. 

These short periods enable a Series, if composed only of thirty per¬ 
sons, to introduce its members into a hundred other series, and form 
with them ties of friendship and of interest. We shall see that this 
connection is indispensable to the solution of two important problems ; 
1 st, the equitable division of profits according to Labor, Capital and 
Talent. 2 d. perfect agreement in matters of collective interest, effected 
through self interest, which at present is the most fruitful source of 
discord. 

It is, then, by means of one of the passions the most sharply criti¬ 
cised by the moralists and philosophers — the love of change and vari¬ 
ety— that we shall solve so many problems in which they have failed. 

Like the moralists, one must be the enemy of nature to deny this 
want of variety, the necessity of which in material matters is clearly 
evident Any enjoyment, for example, which is long continued, be¬ 
comes an excess, dulls the senses, and destroys the pleasure ; a repast 
of four hours degenerates into an abuse; an opera of four hours 
wearies the spectator. As regards change and variety, the soul is as 
exacting as the body; all the affections, even love, are subject to the 
law of alternation. 

The animal and vegetable kingdoms require changes and crossings; 
without them, they degenerate. Our stomachs, in like manner, require 


THE DISTRIBUTIVE PASSIONS. 


59 


change ; an habitual variety of food facilitates digestion and promotes 
health ; the stomach will soon repel the most delicate dish, if presented 
to it daily. 

The mind, in like manner, becomes fatigued by the long continued 
exercise of one faculty ; characters, in which the Alternant is predomi¬ 
nant, require the exercise of two or three passions at the same time, 
to read cumulatively two or three works, to be engaged in two or 
three studies. 

The earth itself needs alternations of crops and modes of culture ; 
the vegetable creations need to be reproduced by changes of seed, 
shoots and other means ; the soil requires changes of manures. All 
Nature seeks variety ; it is only the moralists and the Chinese that 
desire monotony and uniformity $ as a consequence, the Chinese are, 
from their habits of- stagnation, the most perverted of races and the 
farthest removed from the paths of Nature. 

The three regulative passions, being the most strongly condemned 
by our moral theories which are in every way opposed to attraction, 
play as we may presume an important part in the social system de¬ 
signed by Nature : they hold the rudder, for it is they which direct 
the Series. A Series is imperfect in which they do not act combin- 
edly and freely. 

They form, in the scale of the twelve passions of the soul, the 
neutral principel. 

The active principle, — the four affectional or social passions. 

The passive principle, — the five sensitive or sensuous passions. 

The neutral principle, — the three distributive passions. 

The latter are neutral, because they are but the result of the play 
of some of the nine others each one of the three can only act or 
be developed by calling into action at least two of the nine others. 
It is for this reason that they have escaped the observation of ana¬ 
lysts, and that their existence has been overlooked. I was led to 
their discovery by calculations on the neutral principle which we find 
in all departments of Nature ; a principle, not admitted by the mod¬ 
erns, but suspected by the ancients. 

Let us observe that the three neutral passions lead to the great 
end to be attained — the harmony and equilibrium of the passions, 
and by means of which our moral theories are ignorant ; we shall 
see that this harmony and equilibrium, so vainly sought, results 
from the action of the Alternating Passion, which prevents excesses by 


60 


TIIE DISTRIBUTIVE PASSIONS. 




varying occupations and pleasures before they are carried to an ex¬ 
treme. It . thus establishes balance and equilibrium in the action of 
the passions by a great variety of pursuits and pleasures, and not by 
a calculated moderation, inasmuch as it operates in conjunction with 
two impulses—the Emulative and the Composite — both of which tend 
to extremes, even in virtue, and would lead to excesses, were they 
not tempered by the influence of Alternation, or periodical change. 

Thus the industrial Series will be actuated by three Motors, — by 
two contrasted impulses, tempered by inconstancy. Such is the secret 
of the equilibrium of the passions; it is attained by means the very 
opposite of our visionary theories of moderation and of frigid reason ; 
that is, by their free and full development in an Order suited to them. 

Let me here remark, that nothing is so well calculated as the Theo¬ 
ry of the Passions to confound all our moral and philosophic doc¬ 
trines, which hold that these springs of action, these motors in 
man were created at random, and that God has had to leave to le¬ 
gislators and moralists the task of regulating and harmonizing them. 
The Passions may, in the social mechanism, be compared to an or¬ 
chestra of sixteen hundred and twenty instruments : our social guides 
in wishing to direct them resemble a band of children who, gaining 
access to the orchestra of an opera, and laying hold of the instru¬ 
ments, should produce a frightful charivari. Are we to conclude from 
this that music is the enemy of man ; that we should suppress the 
violins, stop the base-viols, smother the flutes ? Not at all ; we must 
drive away these little intruders, and place the instruments in the 
hands of expert musicians. In like manner the Passions are no more 
the enemies of man than are musical instruments; man has no enemy 
but our ignorant moral and philosophic, guides, who wish to control 
the Passions without possessing the least knowledge of the mode of 
action assigned to them by Nature, and of the social mechanism to 
which they are adapted. When this social mechanism shall be tested, 
it will be seen that the Passions are all good as God created them, 
and that when normally developed, they tend to social Unity and 
Harmony. See Appendix, Note I. 


CHAPTER EIGHTH. 


THREE EFFECTS IN THE SERIAL ORGANIZATION, CORRES¬ 
PONDING TO THE THREE DISTRIBUTIVE PASSIONS. 

We will now examine the three effects to which the three forces 
precedingly examined, give rise. When a point in a doctrine is of 
high importance, and forms the basis of an unknown theory, it is well 
to present it under different aspects. The most methodical presenta¬ 
tion may fail with some minds; it is advisable, then, to recur to the 
precaution employed in mathematics, in which the proof and counter¬ 
proof are given. The present chapter will be the counter-proof of the 
preceding one ; it treats the same subject in an inverse sense. 

The three regulative or neutral passions are Causes in the forma¬ 
tion of the Series, for they lead to them in every way : they produce 
three fundamental effects, which are : 

Effect of the Emulative : Compact scale among the groups. 

Effect of the Alternant : Short occupations, with the free choice 
of the same. 

Effect of the Composite : Minute division of labor, and execution 
.of details. 

We shall show that it is by means of this organization that the 
three passions operate; that no one of them can act freely and natu¬ 
rally without the mode of exercise placed opposite to it. In following 
this course, we descend from causes to effects; after which we will 
ascend from effects to causes. 

I have already spoken of the Emulative and its special effect. I 
have shown the necessity of the Compact scale as a means of calling 
out this passion, of exciting rivalry and competition between the 
groups. To stimulate their emulative zeal, it is necessary to create in¬ 
decision among judges, to divide opinions ; there would be no hesi¬ 
tation, were it necessary to judge between two varieties that were un¬ 
like, to decide as to the rank of the groups cultivating, for example, 
the pippin and the greening; but there would be doubt and differ- 
14 


62 


THREE EFFECTS IN THE 


ence of opinion as to the superior excellence of two varieties of 
the pippin, and the precedence to he given to the groups cultivating 
them. This balance of opinions will call out emulation, rival preten¬ 
sions, and competition between the groups, occupied with the rival 
apples. 

This strife to excel is the aliment of the Emulative; it is produced 
by operating on a graduated scale of varieties or sub-varieties, but not 
of species. In this Series, the most minute and compact graduation 
possible is necessary to the development of the above passion. 

I will examine next the third of the three modes of exercise, name¬ 
ly, Minute division and detailed exercise , on which depends the play 
or action of the Composite. It consists in applying a sub-group to the 
performance of each fractional function of a branch of industry. Let 
us take as an illustration the cultivation of the tulip, or other flower. 
The group devoted to it, has many functions to fulfill: we will class 
them under three heads. 

1. Culture. To spade, manure, mix and water the soil, are so 
many different operations, each of which will occupy some members 
of the group, but not the entire group, as many members will have no 
taste for all these occupations. 

2. Tools and Implements. The care of these, the preparation 
and setting of awnings, the care of the pavilion and of the working 
dresses, would form so many details, with the execution of which sub¬ 
groups would be occupied. We will remark that each group has near 
its grounds a pavilion for meetings, and for purposes of shelter and 
storage. 

3. Care of the Seed, Bulbs or Roots, their preparation, the se¬ 
lection of varieties, classification, ticketing and packing. 

Lastly, as Pivotal function, care of the Archives; and as Transition¬ 
al or accessory function, the providing of refreshments. 

Here are at least a dozen distinct functions ; no member would ex¬ 
ercise them all; he will select one or two, or three at the most; it 
will be necessary then to form a dozen sub-groups, occupied with the 
different parts or details of the work. Industrial attraction is partial, 
not integral, —- is for a detail, not for the whole ; to require that each 
member should devote himself to all parts of the work with which the 
group is engaged would be to fatigue and disgust him; hence in each 
group, sub-groups, .consisting of three, four or five persons, with a 
taste for some one function or even for two or three, would be formed. 


SERIAL ORGANIZATION. 


63 


We will now examine how this system of Detailed Exercise gives 
scope to the passion, called the Composite, calls out enthusiasm, and 
creates elegance in all the details of industry. 

Each one of the sub-groups has a passion for the detail which it 
has chosen, and develops in its execution that intelligence and dexter¬ 
ity which an attractive work, selected from choice, calls out. The re¬ 
sult is that each one of the sub-groups depends upon the others to 
give to their branches the highest degree of perfection possible; each 
says to the others : Execute your detail with the utmost care, and we 
will do the same; the w T ork as a whole will then be perfect. 

The confidence, friendship and charm existing among the members 
of the group will be strong in proportion to the extension which is 
given to the principles of detailed execution, enabling each individual 
to select and execute the detail in which he excels and which he 
prefers. 

Industry in Civilization, even in those few cases in which it is at¬ 
tractive, becomes a burthen for the reason that it is necessary to over¬ 
see every detail, and to cooperate with and trust to coarse and mer¬ 
cenary hirelings, who neglect their work or do it badly, and who waste 
and pilfer on every occasion. Compare with these disgusts of Civilized 
labor, the pleasures of associated industry, prosecuted by groups of 
friends who have a passion for the work, and who repose entire con¬ 
fidence in the zeal and intelligence of those cooperating with them: 
compare the two systems, and then decide whether Civilized industry 
is compatible with the nature of man, w'ith the attractions which Na¬ 
ture has implanted in him ? 

Let us now see how the system of division and detailed exercise 
leads to elegance in industry, which is necessary to the gratification of 
the Composite, — of the love of the beautiful and perfect. 

Each one of the sub-groups stimulates the others by giving to the 
part or detail of the work, which it has chosen, a high degree of ele¬ 
gance and perfection. This will lead to liberal expenditures on the 
part of wealthy members for the purpose of embellishing their branches 
of industry. 

For example, two wealthy members of groups, cultivating two va¬ 
rieties of a flower or vegetable, are desirous of beautifying their 
branches of culture; they belong to the sub-groups, having charge of 
the awnings. The Association furnishes only neat awnings of striped 
linens ; they desire magnificent ones, so that visitors, struck by the 


64 


THREE EFFECTS IN THE 


display, may be attracted to their beds; they go to the expense of 
elegant awnings of silk, with fringes and tassels, and each thus seeks 
to render his favorite flower the queen of the garden. 

Every wealthy member will do as much for the sub-group to which 
he belongs; this will give rise to general elegance and splendor in in- 
dustry—in the distribution and arrangements of the fields and gardens, 
and of the workshops, —which will create a degree of industrial charm 
that will excite enthusiasm, and thus call out the passion, called the 
Composite. 

It will be objected that rich members will not be found in all sub¬ 
groups, particularly those engaged in pursuits of a less pleasing or at¬ 
tractive character; this is an error; it will be shown that the indus¬ 
trial education of Association will develop tastes or instincts for all 
branches of industry without regard to classes or fortune. 

We may lay it down as a rule that a minute division of functions 
and detailed exercise communicate to industry two kinds of charm; 
the one material, by the display which it creates in every branch ; 
the other spiritual, by the enthusiasm which it excites in each sub¬ 
group, delighted to be relieved from certain functions connected with 
its work, and to see them performed by intelligent cooperators. 

This execution of details is often effected by arrangements between 
groups; if one group does not furnish a sufficient number of members 
for the performance of a function like the care of awnings, selections 
of persons, having a taste for the work, will be made from several 
groups, and will perform the function for them all. 

Without a detailed division in the exercise of industry, the groups 
would not enjoy the charm of identity of tastes, for out of twelve per¬ 
sons, having a passion for some branch of horticulture, no one will 
have a taste for all the functions connected with it; as a consequence, 
unless the principles of detailed exercise is introduced, they would be 
repelled from the work, and discord would ensue. 

On the other hand, the charm of contrast would not exist between 
two groups that were not animated by corporate pride and enthusiasm. 
Industrial charm is generated by harmonic, not by discordant contrasts. 

The principle of detailed exercise is, then, the means of calling out 
the Composite, — that enthusiasm and exaltation which should exist 
in the industry of the Combined Order. This result will be obtained 
by the minute division of labor, as the development of the Emulative 
is secured by the Compact Scale. 


SERIAL ORGANIZATION. 


65 


As the two modes of exercise — Compact Scale and Detailed Exe¬ 
cution— secure, when applied to Series of Groups, the full develop¬ 
ment of two of the distributive passions, so the third mode of exercise 

— Short Sessions with a free choice of occupations — will secure the de¬ 
velopment of the love of Alternation, the third of the distributives. It 
will be found that, if each individual chooses freely his pursuits, the 
shorter and more multiplied they are, the more perfect will be the 
equilibrium attained in the mental and physical faculties, and the more 
complete the exemption from all excesses. Short occupations can se¬ 
cure a full development to the Alternating passion only in an order 
of things in which pleasures will be exempt from all danger, and in 
which change and variety will promote the health and interests of 
each individual. 

To sum up : the three motors which we have termed the Emulative, 
the Composite and the Alternating, and which impel to the formation 
of Series, correspond so exactly to the three principles of organization, 

— Compact scale, Detailed exercise, and Short periods of occupation,— 
that we may base the theory on the motors or on the principles, for 
they grow reciprocally out of each other; both are indispensable in 
every series, and if we consider, 

The three motors as Causes, 

The three principles as Effects, 

we can verify in two ways the regularity of a Series ; for the analysis 
of its organization must exhibit, 

The three Causes in action, producing the three effects, 

Or the three effects giving scope to the action of the three causes. 

We have here a double method of verification, and to assure our¬ 
selves whether an industrial series is rightly organized — theoretically 
and practically — we can apply either of these tests ; if we see the three 
causes in action, we may be sure of finding the three effects, and vice 
versa. 

Since the mechanism of the Series, and as a consequence Attractive 
Industry, depend upon the combined action of the three distributive 
passions, we can not study too carefully these motors of the soul. 

Moralists blame the Emulative with its spirit of rivalry, its discords, 
its party spirit, its discussions of minutiae, its strifes to excel; and yet 
our artists and economists seek to excite it in every branch of art and 
industry by their controversies relating to literary productions, to 
painting, poetry, etc., and to industrial refinement. It is by opera- 


66 


THREE EFFECTS IN THE 


ting on a scale of minute and delicate shades that a passional Series 
is enabled to electrify twenty groups, and extend the love of refine¬ 
ment from consumption to production ; the members of those groups, 
afier the pleasure they have experienced as consumers, and after dis¬ 
cussions as to the superiority of certain shades or varieties, enter upon 
the work of production, and bring to it the love of refinement and the 
party zeal with which they are animated. 

Our Legislative bodies call often at their opening sessions on the 
Deity to preserve them from party spirit, from rivalry and intrigues, 
and to unite them in opinion ; in doing this, they require the Creator 
of the passions to revoke his own laws, for if he destroyed party spirit 
and emulation, he would destroy the passion which he has created to 
effect and regulate the discords of the Series, which are as necessary 
as the accords, and are essential to all their operations. Instead of 
deferring to the petition of our legislators, he leaves the passions in 
the state in which he created them. As a consequence, at the close 
of their religious ceremonies, so far from uniting in opinion, we see them 
engage at once in party plots and strifes, and soon become animated 
by party spirit. Such is the course which things take, notwithstand¬ 
ing the petition to the Deity to imitate the moralists and philosophers, 
and change the passions to suit the requirements of our false societies. 

The Composite, which in its action is the opposite of the Emula¬ 
tive, as it tends to accord, combination, fusion, is so inherent in hu¬ 
man nature, that he who has a taste for simple pleasures only, limited 
to one enjoyment, is looked upon with contempt Let a man provide 
a fine table for himself alone, inviting no one, and he will be the sub¬ 
ject of merited sarcasm ; if, however, he combines the spiritual with 
the material ; if he assembles at his table a well-selected company, so 
that while the Senses are gratified by the pleasures of the repast, the 
soul is gratified by the charms of friendship, he will be justly praised, 
as his repasts are the occasion, — not of a simple , but of a compound 
pleasure. 

An Ambition is complete only when its two organic springs of ac¬ 
tion, namely, Interest and Glory, are called out ; it is ignoble, if its 
only motive is interest; it is illusive, if it aspires simply to glory ; its 
object must be compound, satisfying both interest and glory, or fame and 
fortune. The same rule applies to the other spiritual passions ; a friend¬ 
ship, to be real, must rest on sympathy of character and sympathy of 
tastes in pursuits; a love is complete only when it is compound, com- 





SERIAL ORGANIZATION. 


67 


birring the charm of the senses and of the soul; it is low on the one 
hand, and illusory on the other, if limited to one of its two modes of 
development. 

The third of the distributive passions, the Alternating, is the means 
of securing Equilibrium between the physical and spiritual faculties: 
it is the guarantee of health for the body, and progress for the 
mind. It alone can produce in society that general benevolence, of 
which the moralists dream, for if the passion, by alternating pur¬ 
suits, causes the dissemination of the members of one group among 
a hundred others, the result of this intermingling will be that each 
group will have friends in all, which will give rise to collective sym¬ 
pathies ; this is the contrary of what takes place in Civilization, in 
which each trade or profession is indifferent or hostile to the interests 
of the others. 

The passion of Alternation, then, is wisdom under the guise of 
fickleness ; a similar remark may be applied to the two other regula¬ 
tive passions. 

I have been induced to explain with some detail these three pas¬ 
sions and the three effects they produce, in order to prevent arbitrary 
plans and arrangements from being adopted in the founding of Asso¬ 
ciation. We have on the formation of the Series two trinities of rules, 
the observance of which must be verified; and any deviation from one 
of the six rules will show the series to be faulty, as alloyed gold is 
proved to be impure by the assayer’s test. In this manner, we can 
prove that all modern associative establishments are entirely false in 
their organization, as they understand nothing of the series, nor of the 
six rules to be observed in their formation, which is the first and most 
important condition in social mechanics. 

It now remains to be explained how the Series tend collectively to 
Unity of action, which is the aim of God in the social as in the ma¬ 
terial world. 

The Passions are of three orders: the Active, comprising the four 
Affections— friendship, love, ambition and parentalism. The Passive, 
or the five Senses—sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch. The Neutral, or 
the three Distributive passions, just described : these latter operate by 
developing combinedly the two other orders ; they operate in concert 
with them, and in a manner to produce unity of action ; they thwart 
consequently none, but distribute, combine and classify the develop¬ 
ments of all. 


68 THREE EFFECTS IN THE SERIAL ORGANIZATION. 


Our moral theories on the contrary seek to establish a conflict be¬ 
tween the three orders of passions; they would have the Affections 
smother the Senses, and Reason repress the Affections. They tend 
then, either to smother or to excite a war between all the passions, 
and to sacrifice them reciprocally, instead of developing them all com- 
binedly, and in a free and harmonious manner, the result of which 
would be Unity of social Action. 

Those theories, then, in creating divergence, conflict and antagonism 
in the play of the passipns, generate duplicity of action in every sense ; 
they produce results which are diametrically opposed to those of unity 
and harmony. In the development of the passions, unity of action 
would secure to man compound happiness, that is, a happiness of the 
affections and the senses combined ; while our moral theories, which 
bring the passions into conflict, and sacrifice one to another, lead to 
compound misfortune,—to the violation and outrage of both the senses 
and the affections. 

This state of social Subversion (that is, violation and consequent 
inversion of the principles of social Unity) is inevitable in the early 
ages of the human race on the globe. The Creator, however, provides 
Humanity — as soon as it has developed to a certain extent industry, 
the arts and sciences, which are the elements of the social organiza¬ 
tion — with the means of extricating itself from it.' Attraction, which 
is never silent, interprets or reveals his social Code. It is easy to cal¬ 
culate the impulses of Attraction, to determine their tendencies, and the 
organization adapted to them, which is that Code, and to establish it.— 
See Appendix, Note II. 


CHAPTER NINTH. 


IMPERFECT SERIES ; CORRECTIVES TO BE APPLIED. 

Having laid down the rules for the proper organization of the Se¬ 
ries, we will give some examples of imperfect Series, which will enable 
the reader to discern in what cases the requisite conditions are fulfilled, 
and in what cases imperfection and w r ant of equilibrium exist, and the 
correctives to be applied. To understand clearly the true method of 
organization, it is well t<T study first the imperfect method. I give two 
examples of false Series,—A and B,—each containing seven groups, 
and engaged in the cultivation of pears. 

Series A: very imperfect. 

( Group cultivating the Martin-Sec. 

(Group cultivating the Messire-Jean. 

( Group cultivating the w r hite butter pear. 

J Group cultivating the gray butter pear. 

( Group cultivating the green butter pear. 

C Group cultivating the Bon-chretien. 

(Group cultivating the Rousselet. 

Series B : slightly imperfect. 

Ascending Wing.—1. 2 : cultivating two kinds of the white butter. 

Center.— 3, i; 5 : cultivating three kinds of the gray butter. 

Descending Wing.—6, 7 : cultivating two kinds of the green butter. 

To treat the subject fully, it would be necessary to show in what 
cases these two Series violate or follow the rules of Compact scale, De¬ 
tailed exercise. Short periods of occupation, on the one hand, and of 
Emulation, Enthusiasm and Interconnection on the other; how the Se¬ 
ries B approximates to these six rules, which are completely violated 
in Series A ; and how the Series A is wanting in the four accords of 
identity and contrast, of special and collective perfection. 


Ascending Wing. 
Hard Pears. 

Center. 

Juicy Pears. 

Descending Wing. 
Mealy Pears. 


70 


IMPERFECT SERIES; 

Without entering into details upon this subject, to explain which 
would require an entire chapter, I will remark merely: 1, that discords, 
and as a consequence, emulation, are wanting in every industrial Se¬ 
ries, the groups of which operate on species instead of on varieties, as 
would be the case with a Series of twelve groups cultivating, for ex¬ 
ample, twelve bulbous flowers, such as the Tulip, Lily, Dahlia, Jon- 
quille, Iris, etc. ; 2, that the groups of a series must at least operate 
on varieties, and if possible on shades of a variety ; never on species, 
and still lesson genera — varieties being the most extended or broadest 
division that Can generate discord and rivalry. 

I have already explained this principle in treating of the Compact 
scale , which alone can give rise to difference of opinion, to controversy, 
party spirit and emulation. We must bring, as we have said, the vi¬ 
cinal groups of a series to that point at which they become rivals for 
public favor; at which they criticise each other’s tastes, each holding 
its opponent devoid of wise discrimination and judgment. The Series 
B approaches this system of dissonance and rivalry, while the Series 
A would produce only apathy and indifference.* 

The Series A would excite no interest among the other Series, 
while the Series B would find partisans on all sides, who would take 
a lively interest in its plans and operations. It would thus be con¬ 
nected in its rivalries with the majority of the Series of its Associa¬ 
tion, forming ties, which the Series A would not. The defect in the 
organization of the latter is that it embraces a branch of cultivation 


* Some readers will observe that these rival groups are a hand of wranglers; but 
we will remark that we find this principle of vicinal dissonance , of discord and emula¬ 
tion, everywhere in Nature and in the social world. We find it in the discords of 
music, without which musical harmony would be impossib'e ; we find it in colors and 
in all departments in which harmony is created. We. find it among painters, poets, 
musicians, who criticise each other's styles ; we find it in the religious w r orld, for di¬ 
vines criticise shades of opinion and slight differences of doctrine. In fact, this prin¬ 
ciple of Discord is, at the bottom, the principle of Individuality. How could the indi¬ 
viduality of anything, of a sound, a color, an opinion, be maintained, wei’e it not in 
dissonance with, and in repulsion to, the vicinal sound, color, opinion, etc. Were there 
no dissonance and no impulsion the two would blend, and individuality would be lost. 
Thus dissonance or discord is the strife of individuality to assert and preserve itself. 
It is the source of excellence, energy and life, and is one of the means of effecting 
classification and order in all things. Tempered by its opposite — Accord between 
elements that are unlike, and which by their nature can not fuse —it will, in the Se¬ 
ries, lead to emulation, noble rivalry, generous competition, which will be one of the 
strongest incentives to individual effort.— Ed 






CORRECTIVES TO BE APPLIED. 


71 


which belongs properly to a district, not to an Association ; we shall 
very rarely find the domain of an Association — about three miles 
square — containing the varieties of soil necessary to the perfect devel¬ 
opment and growth of these different species of pears, like the hard, 
juicy and mealy. Nature, as a general rule, varies somewhat the 
quality of the soil every few miles ; hence a Series that would under¬ 
take the culture of three species of a fruit or vegetable, would run 
the risk of failing with two, and of operating badly for want of attrac¬ 
tion and enthusiasm. A Series, on the contrary, that embraces but 
one species, or a portion of a species, and which perfects its varieties 
and sub-varieties, will generate internal and external emulation, and 
excite an interest in the series of its own and of neighboring Asso¬ 
ciations. 

This method is the opposite of the present policy, which leads each 
district to seek to produce all that it consumes, and thus avoid pur¬ 
chases elsewhere. The contrary principle will be adopted in the 
Combined Order ; an Association will prefer to limit itself to one spe¬ 
cies of a fruit or vegetable, to cultivate twenty varieties or sub-vari¬ 
eties, and supply neighboring Associations, receiving supplies in return 
of other species, which, on its own soil, could not be raised with the 
degree of perfection necessary to the formation of perfect Series, and 
the creation of industrial attraction. Let us add that what, in the 
Combined Order, will facilitate these exchanges, is the absence of 
commercial frauds, and the suppression of the profits of the commer¬ 
cial classes, whose extortions and deceptions now restrict exchanges so 
greatly; they are not a tenth of what they will be in Association. 

I will state that they who undertake to found the first Association 
will probably commit numerous errors in organizing the Series, while 
thinking they follow exactly the rules laid down ; they will organize a 
large majority of them like the Series A, which at first sight appears 
regular, but which in reality contains the greatest defects. 

Its center is without connection with its two wings. 

Each wing is of a loose, not compact, scale. 

Each one of these division's will be apathetic for want of emulative 
discords. 

Many other defects could be pointed out; the center, however, is 
good if considered separately. 

The main defect is the want of discords, and of consequent rivalries 
between contiguous groups; those forming the two wings are without 


72 


IMPERFECT SERIES; 


rivalry with the center, which, on its side, is without rivalry with 
them. All the stimulants, which emulation creates, fail if the scale is 
not compact. Series organized in this manner would create neither 
passional equlibrium nor harmony ; neither industrial attraction nor 
unanimity in the division of profits; they would cause the failure of 
the experimental Association, which lead the theory to be condemned 
as a chimera. To avoid this, I have given precise rules in the pre¬ 
ceding chapters ; if they are not followed exactly, the industrial organ¬ 
ization will fail completely; it will be without emulation, enthusiasm, 
and other incentives which render industry attractive. 

To complete these elementary directions, I will analyse the differ¬ 
ent kinds of Attraction which exist, and the uses to be made of them. 
They are three in number : 

Direct or convergent Attraction. 

Indirect or mixed Attraction. 

Inverse or divergent Attraction. 

1. Attraction is Direct when it springs from the object on which 
the activity is exercised; that is, from the work itself. Archemides 
in studying geometry, Linnaeus botany, Lavoisier chemistry, were not 
actuated by the love of gain, but by an ardent love of science. A 
millionaire who cultivates from passion a fruit or a flower, does not 
do so from the desire of gain, for the work will cost him more than it 
will yield ; he has a passion, consequently, for the occupation itself. 

In these cases, Attraction is direct; it tends to and is in unity 

with the functions exercised ; this kind of Attraction will exist in the 

seven-eighths of the labors of Association, when the Series shall be 
methodically organized. The cultivation and care of the greater part 
of the vegetable creations and of domestic animals can be made, in 
the serial order, to excite a direct attraction ; it can be called out even 
in the case of the hog, when the industrial Series are in full operation 
and stimulated by active rivalries. 

2. Attraction is Indirect when created by motives which are 

foreign to the work, or by ineentives which overcome any disgust con¬ 
nected with it. We have an example of this in the case of the nat¬ 
uralist who keeps venomous reptiles and poisonous plants; he does 

not like these disgusting creations, to which he gives his care, but 
zeal for science impels him from passion to overcome the repugnance 
he may feel, and that without the desire of pecuniary gain. 

This indirect Attraction will be called out in, and applied to, func- 


CORRECTIVES TO BE APPLIED. 73 

tions- which do not possess a natural or inherent attractiveness; they 
will comprise about an eighth of the labors of an Association. 

3. Inverse or Divergent Attraction is that which is in discord¬ 
ance and conflict with the work, and the motive that impels to its 
performance. This state is that of the workman who labors from the 
mere motive of gain, from want or necessity, without any love for his 
work, without animation or enthusiasm. 

This inverse Attraction, which is inadmissible in the passional Se¬ 
ries, is the only kind which the polity and genius of Civilization have 
been able to create ; it reigns in the seven-eighths of the industrial 
labors of the Civilizees; they hate their work, which for them is a 
means of escaping from starvation ; it is a burthen which they undergo 
from stern necessity. 

All divergent Attraction is real repugnance, a state in which man 
imposes upon himself, against his will, a repulsive task. Association 
does not admit of motives of this kind ; even in occupations the most 
repulsive, like the cleaning of sewers, it must at least call into action 
indirect Attraction ; it must put in play levers exempt ffom mere cu¬ 
pidity ; it must arouse noble incentives, such as philanthropy, esprit de 
corps, the religious spirit, and collective friendship. 

We must be able then to banish entirely from the Combined Order 
divergent Attraction; that is, all labor which is N performed from neces¬ 
sity. 

Let us draw here a comparison between the kinds of industrial At¬ 
traction inherent in the Civilized and the Combined Orders. 

The Civilized Order presents, 

1-9 of indirect Attraction. 

7-9 of divergent Attraction, of passive repugnance. 

1-9 of active repugnance, leading to an entire refusal of industry 
by the idle rich, by beggars,* thieves, etc. 

The combined Order will present, 

1-9 of indirect Attraction. 

7-9 of direct Attraction. 

1-9 of unavoidable idleness, arising from sickness, infirmity, old age, 
or infancy, but not from choice. 

Direct Attraction will, then, in the Combined Order, extend to the 
immense majority of pursuits, and the indirect to the remainder; this 
latter attraction will be strong — equal to the most vehement that 
Civilization can excite. 


74 


IMPERFECT SERIES; 


I have now treated several of the constituent elements that enter 
into the organization of the Series, but I have omitted many more. 
This omission will be perceived when I speak, for example, of four 
cardinal groups, divided into Major and Minor , and distinguish them 
as being Compound and Simple in their character; each of these dis¬ 
tinctions would require a chapter, but it is^ impossible to enter into so 
many details in an abridgment. Let me endeavor, however, if possi¬ 
ble, to define in a few paragraphs these two points. 

The difference between the Major and Minor grows out of the 
influence of the two principles, the material and the spiritual, corres¬ 
ponding to the body and the soul. The two groups to which Paren- 
talism and Love give rise, are of the minor order, because the mate¬ 
rial principle predominates in them, especially in the Family group, 
which is by its nature under the control of the material element, for 
we cau not change or dissolve the ties of blood, change relations, as 
we change friends or partners. The Family group, then, is not free ; 
and owing to the unchangeable and material character of the tie, it is 
defective in 'Passional Mechanics —in the operations of social har¬ 
mony ; it can only be corrected and made to produce good effects by 
the absorption of its anti-social and selfish character which now leads 
a man to sacrifice society to his family, and to believe everything per¬ 
missible that the interests of his wife and children demand. 

The group of Love, although subjected to some extent to the mate¬ 
rial principle, is not its slave; the spiritual principle predominates 
when the love is excited by the qualities of the soul, and is not the 
captive of physical beauty alone. This group is consequently not un¬ 
der the exclusive dominion of the material principle, and is therefore 
the most noble of the two minor passions. 

The group of Ambition, or the corporate bond, has for its two 
dominant Attractions the love of fame and of fortune. In its material 
action it operates on the industrial interests of society, which are more 
noble than the corporeal interests, regulated by parentalism ; for this 
reason, and from its love of fame or glory, it belongs to the Major 
order,- in which the spiritual principle predominates. 

The group of Friendship is almost entirely disengaged from the ma¬ 
terial principle ; if we leave aside the sympathy which is produced by 
identity of industrial tastes, it is entirely spiritual in its nature ; it be¬ 
longs consequently to the Major order. 

The two groups of Ambition and Love, I term Compound , because 


CORRECTIVES TO BE APPLIED. 


/t y 

To 

they possess the property — in the Passional Series, hut not in Civil¬ 
ization — of developing in equilibrium the two impulses or elements 
of the passion, the spiritual and the material, and of maintaining in per¬ 
fect balance the attractions of the soul and of the senses, while possess¬ 
ing entire liberty. 

The two groups of Friendship and Parentalism are of the Simple 
order, because they can only attain to equilibrium of the senses and 
the soul by indirect means; one must ally itself with matter, from 
which it is too much disengaged; the other must disengage itself 
from matter, of which it is too much the slave : it will do this by 
spiritual adoptions from sympathy of character, and other motives. 
These two groups then can acquire a compound and harmonious de¬ 
velopment only by indirect means, by counterbalancing the prepon¬ 
derant tendency of the passions which originate them. 

These explanations are far too brief; they touch on points which 
require ample commentaries:' they obscure the subject rather than 
explain it; they open the door to doubt and criticism ; it is for this 
reason that I often omit one subject, and merely indicate another, not 
that I am embarrassed to furnish solutions; I possess, as regards the 
problems of harmony, far m#re than are necessary to meet the objec¬ 
tions that will be raised ; but I must pass over those which would 
lead us into regions of theory that are too abstruse. As to brief ex¬ 
planations, they serve, I repeat, rather to raise doubts than to enlighten 
and demonstrate. 

To explain fully, for example, the reason for the double division 
of the groups above given : 

Into Major and Minor, into Compound and Simple, and the 
nature of these divisions, it would require two ample chapters, and 
as many more on the Contrasted Properties of the four Groups. 

Of these contrasted properties I will give three examples, which 
will exhibit the influences that govern the groups — the spirit that 
animates them under different circumstances. 

1. The tone of the groups. Each one of the four groups 
adopts in its social relations, in the intercourse of its members, a cer¬ 
tain tone or manner, an etiquette; 

Group of Friendship, 

Cordiality and confusion of ranks. 

Group of Ambition, 

Defference of inferiors to superiors. 


76 


IMPERFECT SERIES; 


Group of Love, 

Deference of the stronger to the weaker sex. 

Group of the Family, 

Defference of superiors to inferiors. 

Tn the Combined Order these different Tones will be established 
naturally, which is impossible in Civilization, as innumerable practical 
necessities thwart the natural tendencies of the passions. In the 
Family group or union, for example, the father can not follow the 
natural impulse of the parental sentiment, ’which is to give way to the 
child, to cede to its desires, to caress and flatter it; he must inspire 
it with respect or awe, and hold it in subjection ; the natural tone of 
the group can not therefore be observed. 

In like manner, it is almost impossible to observe in the group of 
Love the natural Tone ; the stronger sex can not pay to the weaker 
that entire defference which the passion naturally inspires. Man dic¬ 
tates practically, in legislation and in marriage, the laws that govern 
woman; he is, under many disguised forms, in reality her master. 

2. Criticism. In the relations of the groups, Criticism is a very 
important function ; it is a source of emulation and improvement. It 
is exercised in the following manner : 

Major .—Group of Friendship. 

The mass criticise facetiously the individual. 

Major .—Group of Ambition. 

The superior criticises gravely the inferior. 

Minor .—Group of Love. 

The individual excuses blindly the individual. 

Minor .—Group of the Family. 

The members excuse indulgently the individual. 

Nature, designing that all criticism should be exercised by the two 
Major Groups, has given us a repugnance for that which comes from 
the two Minor Groups ; they were created to love and caress ; they 
become hateful when, violating their function, they give themselves up 
to moralizing and censuring. Criticism, being an essential attribute of 
the two Major Groups of friendship and ambition, is never offensive 
when exercised by them legitimately in the series. 

In Civilization, one of the minor groups, that of the family, is 
obliged to exercise constantly this function ; the result is a state of 
things contrary to Nature,—irritation, secret antipathy and disobedi- 



CORRECTIVES TO BE APPLIED. 77 

ence on the part of the child ; and forced severity and smothering of 
the sentiments on the part of the parent. 

3. Leadership. In an emergency, when a call to action is made 
by some unforeseen and exciting event, or when some peril is to be 
encountered, the four groups are subjected to very different influences. 
The members influence or direct each other in the following manner: 
Group of Friendship, . . . typified by the Circle, 

All draw each other in confusion. 

Group of Ambition, ..Hyperbola, 

The superiors lead the inferiors. 

Group of Love,.Ellipsis, 

The women influence the men. 

Group of the Family,.Parabola, 

The inferiors draw the superiors. 

These influences are manifested even in Civilization, for in cases 
of great danger or of great enthusiasm, ranks and prejudices are for¬ 
gotten, and the impulses of Nature make themselves felt. 

Each of the four cardinal passions — Friendship, Ambition, Love, 
Parentalism—is called out by two kinds of sympathy or affinity, the 
one spiritual, the other material. The Groups to which they give rise 
are formed by the action of these two sympathies; they attract beings 
to each other and constitute the groups. In the table which follows 
we designate the spiritual and material affinities by S and M. 

TABLE OF THE SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL AFFINITIES OF THE GROUPS. 

Group of Friendship ; Sub-major. 

S. A. Spiritual sympathy from affinity of characters. 

M. A. Material sympathy from affinity of industrial tastes. 

Group of Ambition ; Super-major. 

S. A. Spiritual sympathy from league in the pursuit of fame. 

M. A. Material sympathy from league in the pursuit of fortune. 

Group of Love ; Super-minor. 

M. A. Material sympathy from the attraction of the senses. 

S. A. Spiritual sympathy from the attraction of the soul. 

Group of the Family ; Sub-minor. 

M. A. Material sympathy from the tie of consanguinity. 

S. A. Spiritual sympathy from the tie of adoption. 

(by identity. 

Pivot. Mode of development of the sympathies. <. 

(by contrast. 





78 


IMPERFECT SERIES; 


It may excite surprise that I consider the Affinity of industrial tastes 
as one of the incentives to Friendship ; it appears at present most im¬ 
probable, as industry, being repugnant, repels instead of uniting beings. 
But we have some examples of friendship being formed from identity 
of taste for a favorite pursuit; we see pupils conceive a strong af¬ 
fection for masters, or two men become friends who are engaged ha¬ 
bitually together in hunting, fishing, or some other occupation attrac¬ 
tive to both. 

We see by the precedence of the letters, S and M, that the spirit¬ 
ual element preponderates in the two major groups ; and the material 
element in the two minor groups, which are less noble for this reason. 

If the two affinities act combinedly, the group is compound ; if but 
one is called into action, the group is simple. 

The simple Groups, animated by but one motive, are ordinarily 
either 

A low bond, the material preponderant; or, 

A delusive bond, the spiritual preponderant 

Examples : Two partners in business, working for money , not for 
distinction or fame, are in simple affinity of ambition; they are united 
from interest alone, not from any desire to acquire distinction. This 
group, impelled solely by a material motive, is a league of a low char¬ 
acter. 

Two artists, united from a passion for their art, and seeking fame 
alone, neglect all means of acquiring wealth ; they remain independent, 
pursuing an honorable conduct, but vegetate in poverty. The relation 
is a delusive one ; it is simple spiritual, as the former was simple 
material. 

A love without sympathy, like that of a courtesan, whose only ob¬ 
ject is money, leads to a simple Group, which is contemptible, for the 
reason that the material impulse alone forms the tie. On the other 
hand, two lovers, animated by a purely spiritual love, form, if they 
prolong the tie indefinitely without necessity, a simple group, which is 
illusive. With few exceptions, every simple development of a passion 
— that is, the development of one side or phase alone — is ignoble, if 
materia], and is illusory or trifling if spiritual. On the subject of the 

Mode of Development of the Passions , 
we will remark merely that it is effected both by Identity and by 
Contrast. For example, in Friendship, sympathy of character is called 


CORRECTIVES TO BE APPLIED. 


79 


out by Contrast or a difference, as well as by Identity or a similarity 
of character. In love, the contrast or difference of character gives rise, 
as does identity or similarity, to sympathy. Some moralists would base 
all our sympathies on identity of tastes and feelings — create a kind of 
universal equality and fraternity, as if Nature had created the charac¬ 
ters alike. Others would base these sympathies on affinity of contrasts. 
Bernardin de St. Pierrg, for example, sees the source of all harmony 
in the principle of contrast. These exclusive views are both errone¬ 
ous ; the' accords of character and in fact all accords arise from two 
sources, from Identities and from Contrasts. The Combined Order will 
employ alternately and concurrently the two. 

The systematic examination of these various points would be indis¬ 
pensable in a regular study of the Groups ; but as such a study is 
not proposed in the present abridgment, I will close by remarking 
that Passional Attraction, which may appear a frivolous -subject, is in 
reality a vast and geometrical science, the full explanation of which 
would require an ample treatise. I have limited myself to instructions 
necessary to an approximate trial of Association. When this trial shall 
have been made, the vast importance of the science will be recognized, 
and an ardent desire for its study awakened. 


CHAPTER TENTH. 


PREPARATIONS FOR A PRACTICAL TRIAL OF ASSOCIATION. 

We will take up at length the subject of Organization ; we will ex¬ 
plain it practically, neglecting principles, except so far as they are 
absolutely necessary. 

I will suppose, the reader has made himself acquainted with the 
abridged treatise on the Series, contained in the preceding chapters, | 
and comprehends the means by which the serial organization combines 
the individual with the collective action, and opens to the Passions 
a broad and congenial field of action in useful Industry, balancing and 
equilibrating their play without resort to any means of constraint and 
repression. 

The first Association will, without doubt, be organized on a re- ; 
duced scale, which requires about four hundred persons, a small do- I 
main, and a moderate amount of capital. But to explain the mechanism i 
on this reduced scale, it will be necessary to first study it on the full 
or complete scale ; we can then determine what reductions can be 
made, and in what manner the organization can be reduced to a fourth 
of its natural proportions. 

We will suppose then the trial to be made on the full scale by 
some sovereign or by a stock-company provided with ample means. 

For an Association on the full scale, about eighteen hundred per¬ 
sons are necessary. Such an Association requires for its domain—for 
the field of its agricultural operations — a tract of land three miles 
square. This tract should be watered by a fine stream ; its surface 
should be undulating and adapted to a great variety of branches of 
agriculture ; it should if possible be flanked by a forest, and located 
near enough to a large city to admit of easy communication with it. 
The first Association, being unsupported by neighboring Associations, 
should possess all the advantages which a good location and a good 
soil can give. 



PEACTICAL TEIAL OF ASSOCIATION. 


81 


Diversity and inequality of characters, of practical and theoretical 
acquirements, of fortunes, ages, etc., should be sought for} the greater 
the variety of talents and characters that exist among the members, the 
easier it will be to associate and harmonize them. 

As many branches of agriculture as the soil will admit of should 
be prosecuted, so as to facilitate the formation of a large number of 
Series, to which should be added the care of extensive greenhouses 
and conservatories. At least three branches of manufactures should be 
selected to give occupation during the winter months and rainy days. 
Several branches of art and science will also be cultivated, independ¬ 
ently of the schools. Each branch will be prosecuted by a Series, di¬ 
vided into sub-series of genus and species, and the latter into groups 
of variety, as described in the preceding chapters. 

The personal and real estate of the Association — its lands, edifices, 
flocks, implements, machinery, etc. — will be represented by stock, di¬ 
vided into shares, which will be owned by those who furnish the 
capital, pro rata according to the amount invested. By this means, 
Unity of Interests will be secured jointly with the maintenance of In¬ 
dividual Property. This subject, which is the first in order, we will 
leave aside for the present to treat questions of organization. 

A great difficulty to be overcome in the first Association will be 
the creation of collective ties, and the establishment of concert of ac¬ 
tion among the Series before the end of the fine weather in the 
autumn. 

The Association, beginning its operations early in the Spring, must 
succeed, before winter closes its agricultural labors, in establishing gen¬ 
eral sympathy and a corporate spirit among its members, excite in 
them, individually and collectively, an ardent devotion to the cause in 
which they are engaged, and prepare the way for perfect agreement 
on the important point of a division of profits, determined by the Cap¬ 
ital, Labor and Talent furnished by each. 

In the selection of members a large majority will necessarily be 
composed of persons accustomed to agricultural, mechanical and man¬ 
ufacturing pursuits ; the remainder will be capitalists, artists and men 
of science. 

In choosing the different branches of Industry, care should be taken 
to select those which are the most attractive. The cultivation of the 
plum, for example, as is known, is less attractive than that of the 
pear; as a consequence fewer plum than pear trees will be planted. 


82 


PRACTICAL TRIAL OF ASSOCIATION. 


The degree of attraction, excited by the different branches of Industry, 
will be the guide to be followed in the choice of the different branches 
of agriculture and manufactures. 

Most persons would reason differently ; they would recommend the 
cultivation of objects the most profitable ; productiveness is the princi¬ 
ple they would lay down as the one to be adopted. The Association 
must guard itself against this error; it must follow a policy different 
from that which will be observed when the system becomes general. 
It will be necessary, no doubt, when Association shall extend to the 
different regions of the globe, to regulate production by the combined 
requirements of interest and attraction ; but the first Association will 
have a different object in view; its aim will be to induce a body of 
eighteen hundred persons to work from pure attraction ; and could it 
be foreseen that the cultivation of thistles and briars would be more 
attractive than that of fruits and flowers, it would be necessary, in the 
first Association, to abandon the cultivation of the latter for that of 
the former. As soon as the two great ends are attained — industrial 
Attraction and passional Equilibrium—it will be easy to extend oper¬ 
ations to-useful works which were neglected in the beginning. 

I have stated the question rigorously, because my plan of cultivat¬ 
ing extensively in the first Association fruits and flowers, while the 
heavier branches of agriculture are to a great extent neglected, may 
be criticised. In the first experiment, the requisite means for render¬ 
ing the cultivation of the grains and grasses attractive will not be 
possessed ; such attraction can only be developed when association be¬ 
comes more general, and neighboring Associations send each other 
groups of workmen to facilitate their industrial labors. A policy, suited 
to circumstances, must consequently be adopted, and any and every 
means must be employed to solve the problem of rendering Industry 
attractive. 

The species of animals and vegetables, the care of which is the 
most agreeable, will be selected. It will not be difficult to judge of 
the proportions to be observed in their choice ; some errors will be 
committed, but experience will correct them ; it will, however, require 
a few years to determine exactly all these details. 

An important point to be determined is the amouut of Capital that 
will be necessary for the realization of the enterprise. I estimate that 
three millions of dollars — leaving aside the purchase of the land, the 
price of which can not be determined — will be sufficient for the or- 


PRACTICAL TRIAL OF ASSOCIATION. 


83 


ganization on a large scale, and a quarter of that sum for a trial on a 
reduced scale with four hundred persons. The following is an ap¬ 


proximate estimate : 

Construction of the Edifices, ..$1,000,000 

Organization of the manufactories and workshops; 

tools, implements and machinery,. 500,000 

Preparation of the domain for cultivation ; flocks and 

herds,. 500,000 

Furniture,. 200,000 

Raw materials and provisions for six months, . . 150,000 

Expenses attending organization ; payment of the 

wages of laborers,. 300,000 

Library and gallery of art, . 60,000 

Music and the opera,. 60,000 

Embellishments to create attraction,. 100,000 

Greenhouses and conservatories,. 50,000 

Hedges and fences,. 50,000 

Unforeseen expenses,. 100,000 

$3,070,000 


Three millions, it will be said, is a large sum to test a new and 
unknown theory ; this is very true, but do we not see much larger 
sums risked in undertakings, the success of which is by no means 
certain, and which, if successful, would produce no grand results ? Do 
we not see joint-stock companies, with large capital, constantly pro¬ 
jected for new and doubtful enterprises ? Could not a body of men 
of wealth be found, who would form a company for the purpose of 
testing this, the greatest of all undertakings, and which, if successful, 
would solve the grandest problems that can engage the attention of 
man, among others: Attractive Industry, Harmony in social relations, 
and Unity of interests. 

Let me explain briefly the reason for fixing at eighteen hundred 
the number for an Association on a complete scale. 

The theory indicates that there are eight hundred and ten distinct 
types of human character, and four hundred and five intermediate 
types — semi-tones, so to say — in the series of characters. 

These characters form the complete scale of lntman character, and 
constitute what we will call the integral soul —the collective or 
social Man, possessing all the faculties and talents necessary to the 












84 


PRACTICAL TRIAL OF ASSOCIATION. 


prosecution of the fundamental branches of industry, art and science ; 
and all the varieties of character requisite to the creation of social 
harmony. This collective Man, composed of twelve hundred and 
fifteen individual souls must operate daily and systematically in the 
various departments of social life, and exercise without intermission the 
fundamental branches of human activity.* 

To maintain this number of active members, engaged constantly in 
the various labors of the Association, it will be necessary to add the 
following classes. First, Children under four years of age, who do not 
take an active part in industry, the number of which w r e may estimate 
at two hundred and fifty. Second, the Aged, to the number of fifty or 
sixty who have ceased all active cooperation. Third, the Sick, Infirm 
and Absent, to the number of a hundred. This makes a total of about 
sixteen hundred and twenty persons, which is the exact number indi¬ 
cated by the theory ; but owing to the want of vigor and passional 
development, of dexterity and skill on the part of our civilized popu¬ 
lation, the number of members will require to be increased during the 
first generation to eighteen hundred. 

In connection with this subject, I will remark, as I shall have oc¬ 
casion to refer to it, that the passional theory of Association distin¬ 
guishes three sexes ; it does not confound the children with the men 
and women. It recognizes that childhood, being deprived of two of 
the affectional passions—Love and the Family Sentiment —forms a 
class that is to be distinguished from the two sexes which exercise 
those passions. In strict theory we must then admit three sexes. 

The Masculine ; — males of the age of puberty. 

• The Feminine ;—females of the age of puberty. 

The Neuter; — children under the age of puberty. 


* See Note II. Appendix. 



CHAPTER ELEVENTH. 

INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION ; INVESTMENT OF CAPITAL. 

The direction of internal affairs will, in the beginning, be intrusted 
to a Council, composed of the principal stockholders, and of members 
distinguished for their industrial and scientific acquirements. Women, 
possessing the requisite knowledge, will take part in the direction ; 
they will, in the Combined Order, be on a level with men in all prac¬ 
tical matters, provided they possess the skill and capacity. 

The Combined Order recognizes no community of interests or of 
property, no collective retribution to entire families; it deals with each 
member individually, even with the child five years of age, at which 
time it begins to produce — remunerating each individual according to 
his or her Labor, Capital and Talent. 

Families and groups of friends will be free to put into a common 
stock what they possess, if they desire to do so; but the Association 
in its relations with them opens on its books an account with each 
member, even with the child. The profits of the latter do not go to 
the father ; the child, from the age it begins to produce, is proprietor 
of the fruits of its industry, as well as of any legacies or inheritances 
which may fall to it, and which the Association preserves for it until 
it is of age. 

After an appraisal, at the cash value, of any lands, machinery, live 
stock, furniture or other objects furnished by members, they are repre¬ 
sented as well as the cash capital paid in, by stock, divided into 
shares, secured by the real and personal estate of the Association, by 
its lands, edifices, flocks, etc. The Council delivers to each person an 
amount of stock equal to his investment. A person may be a mem¬ 
ber without being a stockholder, or a stockholder without being a res¬ 
ident member. 

The annual profits of the Association are, after the general inven¬ 
tory is taken, divided into three unequal portions, and distributed as 
follows : 


15 


86 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION ; 


Five-twelfths to labor. 

Four-twelfths to capital. 

Three-twelfths to talent and skill. 

Each person may, according to his capital, labor and skill, partici¬ 
pate in one or all of these three classes of profits. 

The Council, charged with the financial direction, will advance to 
the poorer members food, lodging and clothing for the year. No risk 
will be incurred, for, labor being rendered attractive, they will produce 
more than sufficient to cover the advances thus made. At the annual 
settlement, the Council will deduct from their earnings the Minimum 
furnished them. This minimum will consist of: 

Board at the tables of the third or cheapest price. 

Decent clothing and working uniforms. 

A private apartment for each person. 

Admission to the public halls and saloons, to public assemblages 
of a social or other character, and to the opera. 

The tables will be of different prices, at least three ; all equality 
and uniformity are a poison in social politics. There will be also 
special preparations of food, adapted to the different ages; the children 
will have their separate fables and dining rooms, with food suited to 
their ages; they will eat with grown persons only at some of the 
lighter repasts. Families can, however, dine together when they de¬ 
sire in small dining rooms by the side of the public dining halls; all 
these arrangements will be free, and will be regulated by Attraction — 
of the natural demands of which we can not well judge at present, as 
Attraction is so thwarted in Civilization. 

As no coercive measures are admitted in the Combined Order, the 

* % 

■works to be executed are indicated, not ordered, by the Supreme 
Council of Industry, which we will call the Areopagus. This Coun¬ 
cil is composed of the superior officers of the different Series. Its 
functions’ are advisory ; its opinions and decisions are subordinate to 
the judgment and desires of each Series, which regulates with entire 
freedom its own industrial interests and operations. The Areopagus 
will not, for example, order the harvest; it will declare merely from 
certain observations, that such or such a time is in its opinion favor¬ 
able, after which each Series will decide according to its own judg¬ 
ment ; it will not, however, differ essentially in its views from those 
of the Areopagus, which, combining the experience and knowledge of 
the entire Association, will have great weight in public opinion. 




INVESTMENT OF CAPITAL. 


87 


Among the men most opposed to the idea of a new order of things, 
will be capitalists and large landed proprietors. It will be well to 
make a few remarks in relation to the employment of capital and of 
landed property in the Combined Order. A comparison of the dan¬ 
gers which beset property in the present Order with the security 
which Association will guarantee it, can not fail to interest them. 

After a life spent in acquiring a fortune in the present Order, new 
perplexities and difficulties arise to preserve it, and to secure it to 
children who, on the death of the father, are so often the victims of 
the innumerable frauds, practiced in Civilization, or are drawn into 
the vortex of ruin, which is every where opened before young men of 
wealth. These dangers, and the anxieties to which they give rise, will 
disappear in the Combined Order — an advantage which is certainly 
well worthy of consideration. 

In this Order, lands will not be owned without a guarantee of in¬ 
come, as is so often the case in Civilization. The entire Association, 
cultivating a domain, will guarantee a dividend to the landed propri¬ 
etor, owning stock in it ; in case of the failure of crops, or other 
losses, he will be certain of receiving at least a minimum dividend, 
of which the Association and the entire district will be the insurers. 
Landed estates, even the finest, now yield scarcely three per cent, de¬ 
duction made of taxes, non-payments of rents, and various accidents, 
without speaking of law-suits, which are almost inevitable in Civiliza¬ 
tion, for, according to the adage, he who has soil has iurmoil. 

The Association would guarantee the stockholders a revenue, clear 
of all charges, varying from six to eight per cent, and would be secu¬ 
rity for its payment. With the immensely increased product of this 
new Order, such an interest would impose no sensible burthen on In¬ 
dustry. 

Another advantage, now unknown, and which our financiers have 
never thought of, is the power of rendering real estate personal pro¬ 
perty, convertible at will into a cash capital. 

The real estate of an Association is represented, as w r e stated, by 
stock, divided into shares ; these shares the Association will purchase 
or reimburse at all times at the price of the last inventory, with in¬ 
terest for the part of the year which has elapsed. Thus a man, if he 
possessed millions, could realize his fortune at once, and without any 
loss. If an Association had not sufficient funds on hand to purchase 
the stock of a large stockholder, the Treasury of the district would ad- 


88 


INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION. 


vance the means and retain the stock as security. Thus property 
would be rendered convertible at will, and would at any time com¬ 
mand its value in cash. As to the security of investments, there can 
be no doubt. An Association can in no case become bankrupt, squan¬ 
der its landed property and edifices, or remove them. The entire re¬ 
gion would insure the crops against ravages by the elements — ravages 
that will be greatly reduced, when, by the universal culture of the 
earth, the climate will be immensely improved. Accidents from fire 
wall be reduced to a mere trifle, as the Combined Order will construct 
its edifices fire-proof. 

A minor will run no risk of losing his property or any legacies 
left to him ; the guarantees are the same for him as for all other 
stockholders ; if he has inherited stock in various Associations, the 
stock will be registered on the books of these Associations; it will 
draw for him the same interest as for others, and it can in no way be 
taken from him. 

It is only in Association, in which the joint-stock principle is ap¬ 
plied to the tenure of landed estate, that such estate can be rendered 
convertible at will, secure of an income, and safely invested ; it is nei¬ 
ther of these in Civilization, but subject to risks, dangers and perplex¬ 
ities of every kind. 





CHAPTER TWELFTH. 

THE PALACE OF THE ASSOCIATION : ITS INTERNAL 
DISTRIBUTION. 

The edifices and the agricultural arrangements of a Society that 
operates by Series of groups will differ very widely from those of our 
villages and farms ; adapted to families, that have no industrial rela¬ 
tions with each other, and operate without any concert of action, or 
unity of plan. Instead of the chaos of little houses which now com¬ 
pose the towns and villages of Civilization, and which vie with each 
other in inconvenience, ugliness and often filth, an Association would 
construct a vast and regular edifice, perfectly adapted to the varied 
wants of a body of eighteen hundred persons. No arbitrary plan must 
be adopted ; the square form, for example, would be wholly unsuitable ; 
it would cause disorder in many relations. The plan must be suited 
in every respect to the play of the passional Series, and be determined 
by the material and social wants of man. 

We give a sketch on the next page of the ground plan to facilitate 
explanations. We will remark that the plan we here give may be modi¬ 
fied by the undulations of the ground, by climate and by experience. 

The dark lines represent the ranges of buildings, some seventy-five 
feet in depth ; the blank spaces between them, interior courts about 
two hundred feet wide. 

The smaller buildings, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, represent the stables, grana¬ 
ries and other outhouses, and manufactories of a noisy character. Be¬ 
tween them and the Palace passes a wide avenue. 

S : The public square, on which industrial parades and other cere¬ 
monies take place. 

G : The central court, forming a winter garden and promenade. 

C : Lesser courts between the ranges of buildings. 

K: Court devoted to the kitchens. 

E : Large portals or entrances to the Palace. 

Passages, supported by columns, between ranges of buildings. 



GROUND PLAN OF THE 


PALACE OF AN ASSOCIATION. 





S. Public Square. 

G. Central Court and Winter Garden 
C. Lesser Courts between the ranges of buildings. 
K. Court on which the Kitchens open. 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Outhouses. 






















































































































THE PALACE. 


91 


The center of the Palace, around the grand court, G, would be de¬ 
voted to purposes of a social, artistic and scientific character. Here 
would be located the library, the exchange, the council rooms, the 
large dining halls, the reception rooms, the galleries of art, the tele¬ 
graph, and on the top, the observatory and the signal tower, froil 
which orders are issued to all parts of the domain. Some of the finer 
apartments would also be located in it. Enclosed in the center would 
be the elegant winter garden, with its green-houses,— an arrangement 
now wanting, even in the palaces of kings, although there is more bad 
than fine weather in the course of the year. 

In one of the extreme wings will be located the workshops of a 
noisy character, and also the industrial schools, so as to isolate them 
from the center of the palace. By this means an inconvenience of our 
cities, that of noisy occupations in populous streets, which offend the 
ears of twenty different families, would be avoided. 

In the other extreme wing, will be located the caravansary or grand 
hotel for the reception of travelers, with every convenience necessary 
to their hospitable entertainment.' 

The two buildings, O O, will be employed for purposes which it 
may be advisable to isolate ; one could be used for the opera, connect¬ 
ing with the main edifice by covered passages. 

Besides the private apartments, the palace will contain a 'large num¬ 
ber of public halls, which we will term Seristeries (from series and 
stere), which will be places for the reunion and development of the 
Series. These halls will not resemble our present public halls, in 
which social relations take place without order or gradation. A series 
will not admit of this confusion ; it will always establish three, four or 
five divisions, which will occupy as many contiguous and connected 
rooms, forming the parts of one large hall. Thus each Seristery will, 
for the most part, be composed of three divisions ; one for the central 
group or groups of the Series, and two for those of the wings. In 
addition, the three divisions of the Seristery will have small rooms ad¬ 
joining for special meetings of groups or of committees. For example, 
the banquet halls, forming a vast Seristery, will contain six large halls 
of different sizes, besides two for the children, so arranged as to meet 
the various tastes and degrees of fortune of the members. 

By the side of these large halls there will be private rooms, where 
groups which may wish to dine by themselves can do so. It will 
happen daily that parties of persons will wish to eat in private ; they 


92 


THE PALACE. 


will find rooms by the side of the large halls, where tables of the same 
kind and at the same price will be served. 

Thus, in all relations, it will be necessary to reserve by the side 
of the Seristeries, or the halls of assembly of the Series, small private 
rooms for the accommodation of private parties or unions. As a con¬ 
sequence, a Seristery is arranged on a compound plan ; that is, with 
halls for collective relations, and halls for the special relations of 
groups. This system is very different from that which exists in our 
social unions; we see in the saloons, even of princes, the company 
united pell-mell, forming an unordered crowd — a confusion of which 
Association will not in any way admit. 

The manufactories, storehouses, stables and other outhouses will be 
placed, as we stated, at a convenient distance from the main edifice 
and opposite to it; the gardens will be located on the other side; the 
grain fields will be located in the rear of the outhouses; the nature 
of the soil must, however, determine many of these arrangements. In 
order not to give too great a length to the Palace, which would im¬ 
pede relations, it will be composed Of two ranges of buildings, run¬ 
ning parallel to each other, and enclosing, as we explained, large 
courts; these courts will be from two hundred to two hundred and 
fifty feet wide. The total length of the Palace will be something over 
two thousand feet. This estimate is for an Association on a large 
scale ; for a small one of four hundred persons, a comparatively small 
edifice, or a wing of the large one could be constructed. 

The edifice will be three stories high, with an attic, resting on a 
high basement or ground floor, through which openings at certain dis¬ 
tances will be reserved for the passage of carriages. 

We will speak with some detail of one architectural arrangement of 
the edifice, as it is unknown in the cities and palaces of Civilization. 
This arrangement is a vast gallery, from twenty to twenty-four feet 
wide, running around one entire side of the palace, and the height of 
the three stories, lit by spacious arched windows extending to the ceil¬ 
ing; it is not a piazza on the outside of the edifice, but a vast hall or 
corridor within it. This gallery will form, so to say, a covered street, 
warmed in winter, and ventilated in summer; it will be elegantly or¬ 
namented with frescoes and statuary. It will furnish a means of inter¬ 
nal communication, which will alone suffice to make us look with 
pity on the finest palaces and cities of Civilization. Whoever shall 
have seen the Street-galleries of an Association will regard the finest 


THE PALACE. 


93 


civilized palace as a place of exile, as the residence of idiots, who, 
af or three thousand years of architectural studies, have not discovered 
the science of constructing healthy and commodious habitations ; they 
have speculated only on simple convenience and elegance, neglecting 
all researches of a compound and collective character. 

The want of skill in this respect is so great that the monarch of 
France has not a portico to his palace of the Tuileries, under which, 
shielded from the weather, he can enter his carriage. The rich and 
great of Civilization are still more exposed in this respect if they 
wish to communicate with separate parts of their establishment; in 
going, for example, to the stables or the orangeries, they must encoun¬ 
ter, if the weather is unfavoraole, the wet or the mud. Nothing is 
kno\vn in Civilization of Street-galleries, of underground passages, and 
of numerous other material luxuries which, in Association, will be en¬ 
joyed by the poorest of its members. 

The humblest individual will, in a Palace of the Combined Order, 
enter a carriage under a covered portico, comfortably warmed in win¬ 
ter ; he will go from the Palace to the stables by underground pas¬ 
sages, lit from above and paved and sanded. In mid-winter the resi¬ 
dents of an Association will communicate with all parts of the edifice, 
going to the banquet halls, to the ball rooms, to the public assem¬ 
blies, and passing to and from the outhouses without knowing whether 
it rains or blows, whether it is cold or inclement without. These few 
details, respecting architectural improvements, authorize me to say, 
that if the Civilizees, after three thousand years of experience, have 
not learned how to construct properly their residences, it is not at all 
surprising that they have not discovered the art of regulating and 
harmonizing the play of the passions. When men fail to make the 
smallest discoveries in material matters, they may well fail to make 
great ones of a passional or spiritual character. 

An Association, containing eighteen hundred persons, among whom 
are many very opulent families, is in reality a small city; the more 
so as it has manufactories and extensive rural buildings. The Associ¬ 
ation has no exterior street or uncovered way, exposed to the inclem¬ 
encies of the seasons ; all parts of the Palace are accessible by means 
of the elegant interior communications, which we have described. 
These communications are, in the Combined Order, the more neces¬ 
sary, as the changes of occupations by the groups are very frequent. 
If it were necessary to go from one workshop to another, from the 


94 


THE PALACE. 


Palace to the stables, the residents would, in the winter season, he ex¬ 
posed to colds and to inflammatory attacks, whatever their health and 
strength might be ; an order of things, which requires frequent changes 
of occupations, renders covered communications indispensably necessary. 

The Gallery, which will be a continuous enclosed Peristyle , will 
pass around the edifice on a level with the first story, not around the 
ground story, through which passages must be left for carriages. They 
who have seen the gallery of the Louvre in Paris, have a model of 
what will be the street-gallery of the Palace of an Association, except 
that the windows will be larger and open on one side only; it will 
have, like the Louvre, an inlaid floor, and be ornamented with works of 
art. The possibility of communicating with all parts of the edifice by 
means of a superb gallery of this kind, of going to the opera, to balls 
and parties in the coldest weather in light dress, will be a charm so 
new that it will render our cities intolerable to whoever shall have 
passed a winter’s day in a Palace of the combined Order. If an edi¬ 
fice, such as we have described, were erected in one of our large 
cities, and adapted to the usages of Civilization, it would, owing to 
the immense advantages of its covered communications, to its conven¬ 
ience. comfort and healthfulness, command for the same extent of room 
a rental double that of our present isolated dwellings. 

Each range of buildings of the Palace will contain a double row of 
apartments, one looking out upon the fields and gardens, the other on 
the Gallery, which, as we stated, will extend the entire height of the 
building. 

The private apartments will be rented by the Board of internal di¬ 
rection to each one of the members. The series of apartments will be 
distributed, as regards size and price, in a compound and connected 
order, not in a simple or continuously increasing or decreasing order; 
if they range in price from twenty to five hundred dollars a year, care 
must be taken to avoid a consecutive , continuous increase , as would be 
that of fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, a hundred dollars a year, 
which would place all the finer apartments in the center of the Palace, 
and the smaller and cheaper apartments in the wings; they must al¬ 
ternate in price, so that by the side of a cheaper will be placed a 
dearer suite of rooms, in the following order: 

30, 60, 40. 80, 50, 90, GO. 100, 70, 110, 80, 130. 90, 140, 100, 160. 

The regularly increasing or simple progression would be very de¬ 
fective. It would be false in principle, as it would violate a funda- 


THE PALACE. 


95 


mental law of Harmony, which requires the compound order in all 
distributions. It would be false in practice, as it would offend the 
pride of members, and paralyze many elements of harmony. Its effect 
would be to concentrate the richer members in the center of the 
Palace, and the poorer jn the wings; as a consequence the wings 
would be looked upon as inferior residences, and invidious distinctions 
would be made. 

Differences of rank and fortune will exist in the Combined Order, 
but classes must not be isolated. By means of the compound distri¬ 
bution we have pointed out, persons residing in the central part of the 
edifice may be less wealthy, and occupy suites of apartments that cost 
less than some of those in the wings. The fine apartments of the wings 
will be more desirable than the cheaper apartments of the center. This 
arrangement will be one means of creating an accord of high impor¬ 
tance, namely, the fusion of the different degrees of fortune and of the 
classes that represent them; this accord would be destroyed if there 
existed in the Palace a quarter occupied exclusively by the poorer 
members. 

In addition to the central edifices, accessory buildings — elegant de¬ 
pots, summer-houses with columns and domes, kiosks, etc. — will be dis¬ 
tributed over the domain. A regular Association will have four large 
buildings of the kind, located midway between the Palace and the 
boundaries of its lands, and as nearly as practicable in the direction of 
the four points of the compass ; here collations will be served to Series, 
or to detachments from neighboring Associations, united for the pur¬ 
pose of accelerating some labor, which will avoid the necessity of re¬ 
sorting to the Palace for the purpose of taking a repast. Each Series 
will have its elegant kiosk, located in the central part of its field of 
operations, and each Group its tastefully fitted-up depot at one of the 
angles of its grounds. These airy and elegant constructions, scattered 
over the domain, will add greatly to the beauty of the scene. 

I will not speak here of the distribution and arrangement of the 
stables, which will differ greatly from ours; in the Combined Order, 
they will be adapted to the wants and instincts of animals, and planned 
in accordance with the requirements of the serial method, which will 
be applied to the care of the animal kingdom, as to everything else. 
Details on these as on other points will be the subject of special chap¬ 
ters. We have wished to speak only of the interior distribution of the 
Palace,—one feature of which, the great Gallery, or the avenue of in- 


96 


THE PALACE. 


ternal unitary communication, will prove that the architects of Civil¬ 
ization, after thirty centuries of studies, have made no discoveries in 
architectural Unity. This dearth of new ideas is due to the influence 
of a Social Order which, deviating in every sense from the spirit of 
unity and association, favors only the petty .enterprises, the bad taste 
and other defects, both material and spiritual, which result from social 
incoherence and isolated individual action. 


CHAPTER THIRTEENTH. 


AGRICULTURAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF THE SERIES ; COMBI¬ 
NATIONS OF THEIR GROUPS. 

We boast of our progress in agriculture ; we admire it when com¬ 
pared with the rude processes of barbarians : are we then on the path 
to perfection because we are a little more advanced than ignorant 
neighbors ? If we could see the agriculture of the Combined Order at 
the end of a half century — a period which would be required for the 
restoration of forests — we should be very much surprised to discover 
that Civilization, with its pretentions to perfectibility, is still in the 
savage state as regards various branches of cultivation, for example, 
that of prairies; and in regard to others still more important, such as 
forests, we are below the savages; for we do not, like them, leave the 
forests uncultivated and in their virgin state; we destroy and devas¬ 
tate them wantonly, producing among other results the drying up of 
streams and the deterioration of climate. 

This destruction, by drying up the springs and streams and multi¬ 
plying storms, causes in a two-fold way derangement in the aquatic 
system. Our streams, ever alternating from one extreme to another, 
from sudden freshets to long stages of dryness, cause periodic ravages 
and at the same time supply but few fish, most of which are destroyed 
as fast as they issue from the spawn, reducing to a tenth the quantity 
that might be produced. Thus we are below the savage in our treat¬ 
ment of the forests and waters. 

How strongly will our descendants execrate Civilization, when they 
see so many mountains despoiled and laid bare like those in the south 
of France, which the industrial armies of the Combined Order will be 
obliged to plant anew with forests, requiring great labor and ages for 
its accomplishment. This destruction, quite recent, was principally the 
work of the vaunted age of Louis XIV. and that of his successor, 
Louis XV.— ages renowned for their literary and philosophic charac- 


98 


AGRICULTURAL SERIES. 


ter; these two epochs will be called in the future the two Attilas 
of agriculture and the climate. 

We now come to the agricultural distribution of the domain of an 
Association. I have spoken of the arrangement of its edifices; we 
must now give a general idea of its system of cultivation, in order to 
complete our survey of its material department. 

Associative agriculture unites three amalgamated systems: 

1. The simple or massive order, Doric. 

2. The ambiguous or vague order, Ionic. 

3. The compound or blended order, Corinthian. 

1. The simple or massive order is that which excludes combina¬ 
tions ; we see it in full operation in districts where the great staples 
are cultivated; where on one side are only open fields, and on the 
other only woodlands; although in the tracts of land appropriated to 
grain many fields are to be observed which might be devoted to the 
cultivation of other crops, particularly to the leguminous species; so 
in the woodlands, there are many gentle declivities which might suit 
the growth of the vine; many interior plains which would be suitable 
for cultivated glades, the introduction of which would improve the forest 
by opening cleared spaces to let in the sun, and allow the free circu¬ 
lation of the air. 

2. The ambiguous, or vague and mixed order , is that of the style 
of gardens, called English , but which should be called Chinese , for the 
English borrowed the style from that people ; this is highly agreeable 
when properly employed, but not on the confined scale of the Civili- 
zees, who bring together miniature mountains and lakes in a space of 
the dimensions of a court-yard. The Combined Order, being the enemy 
of dull uniformity, will adopt at different points on a domain, and par¬ 
ticularly in districts broken by hills, this Chinese or vague and ambigu¬ 
ous method, which brings together, as if by chance, every style of cul¬ 
ture ; it will form a piquant contrast with the massive and amalga¬ 
mated systems. 

3. The compound and blended order is the opposite of the civilized 
system, according to which every individual surrounds his property 
with walls and fences, entrenching himself against his neighbors. This 
is all right in Civilization , in which fraud and theft are so general, but 
in Association, where theft will be unknown, and where a child would 
not take even a bunch of currants , the interlinked method, so far as 
possible, will be employed in the distribution of agricultural labors. 


AGRICULTURAL SERIES. 


99 


According to this method every Series endeavors to throw out branches 
of its culture upon all points, extend advanced beds and detached 
plots to the vicinity of Series whose centers of operation are remote 
from its own. 

The massive order is the only one which bears any relation to the 
coarse methods of Civilization, which cultivates all the flowers in one 
place, all the fruits in another ; here all is meadow ; there all is wheat 
land ; in short, it everywhere forms masses which have no connection ; 
its agriculture is, like the other branches of its system, in a state of 
universal incoherence and methodical excess. 

On the other hand, the Civilizees, on their private estates, abuse 
the blended or interlaced method ; for every one, wishing to gather 
from his own land the products necessary for his consumption, culti¬ 
vates twenty varieties of objects upon a piece of land which is not fit¬ 
ted to produce three. A peasant will cultivate wheat and the vine, cab¬ 
bages and radishes, carrots and potatoes, all together on a soil suitable 
for wheat alone; and then a whole hamlet will sow wheat exclusively 
on some remote patch, upon which different crops should be mingled. 

A consideration which determines many of the agricultural arrange¬ 
ments of the Civilizees, their choice of location and soils, and the pe¬ 
riods of harvest, is the risk of theft. Say to a cultivator: u Where you 
are sowing wheat, I should plant an orchard ; the soil seems better 
adapted to it.” He will answer: u That is true, but my orchard 
would be robbed; the place is so situated that I can not watch it.” 
Tell him that he commences his vintage too soon, or gathers the fruit 
of his orchard before it is ripe, and that he should pick his fruit at 
three successive epochs ; he will reply, “ You are right; but I should 
be robbed; I should have nothing left, and I am compelled to gather 
my fruit while it is still green, and all at once.” 

No risks of this nature will exist in the Combined Order; the distri¬ 
bution of crops will agree perfectly with the soil, and nothing will pre¬ 
vent the assignment to every variety of soil of the crop to which it is 
adapted. This distribution will be made in the three modes indicated 
above: the massive, the vague and the interlaced, because in Associa¬ 
tion it is necessary to ally the Groups and Series of different denomi¬ 
nations, and provide for their being brought in contact in their indus¬ 
trial functions, in order that a mutual interest may be excited. 

An Association, cultivating its domain as if it belonged to a single 
individual, will begin by determining the kind of culture suitable for 


100 


AGRICULTURAL SERIES. 


every portion of it, what combinations are possible, and what inciden¬ 
tal crops can be raised in connection with the pivotal one. The ob¬ 
ject of this combined system of cultivation is to bring different groups 
upon, the same ground, and to leave a group as little isolated as pos¬ 
sible in its labors. 

To this end, every branch of cultivation will, as far as practicable, 
be extended and connected with other branches. Thus the flower and 
vegetable gardens, which among us are located in the vicinity of the 
dwellings, will not be brought together, and confined to the purlieus 
of the Palace ; but of both, divisions and ramifications will be extended 
to the fields ; and detached masses of flowers and vegetables, diminishing 
by degrees, will finally blend in scattered clusters with the crops of 
the fields, meadows and forests, where the soil is adapted to them. 
And in the same way, the orchards which arc more remote from the 
Palace, will maintain in its vicinity some affiliated out-posts, some clus¬ 
ters of trees and wall-fruits, intermingled with the vegetable and flower 
gardens. 

This intermingling of various cultures, so agreeable to the eye, con¬ 
tributes also to the useful, to the formation of social ties and relations. 
The Series of pear-growers may have their great orchards at half a 
mile from the vegetable garden ; but it establishes a connection with 
it, and stations an out-post in its vicinity—a little group of some fifty 
pear trees of varieties best adapted to the soil of the garden. This lo¬ 
cality, occasionally visited by groups of pear-growers, brings their Se¬ 
ries in contact with that cultivating vegetables. On the other hand, 
this latter Series extends out towards the main orchard of the pear- 
growers some few beds, planted with vegetables adapted to the soil; so 
that at times, one or two groups of the Series of vegetable-growers 
will be brought in contact with those of the pear-growers — their labors 
being prosecuted in the same locality. 

These interlinkings should be established in every possible way ; 
each Series should operate so as to throw out masses or lines of cultiva¬ 
tors. and extend groups to the grounds of neighboring Series, or to the 
vicinity of their labors. This arrangement will open the way to the 
meetings of the groups and to the various ties which may thence result. 

Particular efforts should be made to establish contact between 
branches of culture, prosecuted by groups of men and women, and to 
interlink their functions. For example, if a large number of members 
of the Series of pear-growers is assembled in its great orchard, at half 


AGRICULTURAL SERIES. 


101 


a mile from the Palace, it would be desirable that there should be 
brought around it and in connection with it in its evening labors be¬ 
tween four and six o’clock, 

1. A detachment from a neighboring Association to aid the Series 
of pear-growers. 

2. A group of lady florists of the Association, who come to culti¬ 
vate a line of flowers, a few hundred feet in length, adorning a road 
running near by and forming a division line between the orchard of 
the pear-growers and the adjoining field. 

3. A group from a Series of vegetable-growers to cultivate a bed. 
of a variety which will grow upon that point. 

4. A group of young girls, cultivating beds of strawberries in' a 
clearing in the forest contiguous to the large pear orchard. 

At half past five a collation for all these groups will be brought 
from the Palace; and as the Series of pear-growers will preside on 
this occasion, the groups of fruit, flower and vegetable-growers, being 
only detachments of Series, as well as the groups sent from a neigh¬ 
boring Association, the collation will be served in its pavilion ; this 
will be a light and short repast, beginning a quarter before six and 
terminating a quarter after. All the groups thus assembled will dis¬ 
perse after the repast, having established friendly relations, and deter¬ 
mined upon industrial or other meetings for the following day. 

Let us observe that these meetings of industrial groups are not par¬ 
ties convened for amusement, in which the only object, as now, is plea¬ 
sure, separated from every useful end ; they are combinations of ri¬ 
val groups, planned and entered into for the support of the industrial 
pretentions of the Association and its neighbors. In the Combined. 
Order, every thing has reference to the prosperity of industry ; even 
pleasures are made to tend to encourage labor and augment wealth. 

Thus the demands of the twelfth Passion, called the Composite, are 
satisfied. It requires in industry, as in all relations, compound or du¬ 
alised incentives. But these would be simple, if industrial emulation 
were excited by the desire of gain alone ; to this must be joined incen¬ 
tives which gratify other passions, for example, friendship and love ; the 
meetings of the Series will bring persons together, who have an affec¬ 
tion for each other, and will afford the opportunity of agreeable social 
intercourse, while engaged in useful occupations. It will combine the 
useful with the agreeable, combine productive industry with the grati¬ 
fication of the sentiments. 


CHAPTER FOURTEENTH. 

COMBINATION OF THE THREE ORDERS OF AGRICULTURE. 

The Combined Order requires, as we have seen, the employment 
of the interlaced, mixed and massive orders. To facilitate this com¬ 
bination, they will be amalgamated on the same soil as far as its qual¬ 
ities will admit. If the various declivities and slopes of a nidge of land 
will allow, for example, of the cultivation at different points of ten va¬ 
rieties of vegetables and fruits^ — of peas, beans, onions, turnips, car¬ 
rots, wheat, barley, the apple, peach and vine, — all these different 
articles will be cultivated on the various slopes and exposures of the 
ridge, with terraces where necessary. The groups will have their lit¬ 
tle pavilions, with a larger central one, supported at their joint expense. 

Such a combination of cultures is of the mixed or.ambiguous order. 
Association proceeds methodically in the employment of the three or¬ 
ders. On plains, it will combine cultures by the interlinked method, 
by straight or curved, and by concentric or winding lines, according 
to the shape of the ground. Upon a hill-side the affiliations are vague, 
and will be of the mixed order, which requires to be varied according 
to the forms of the declivities, the character of the slopes, and the 
means of supplying them with water. 

Thus the interblendings of various cultures whether in right and 
oblique lines (the compound or third method), or by scattered and 
picturesque patches (the mixed or second method), create a variety as 
refreshing to behold as the civilized method is monotonous and weari¬ 
some. The grand fault of the latter method is, that it carries to ex¬ 
tremes the first order, styled massive or simple. It concentrates in vast 
masses upon a single point some single production, for example wheat, 
the varieties of which might be better raised at different points of the 
same locality. Or on the other hand, the civilized system of cultiva¬ 
tion runs to the contrary extreme, into the mixed and vague method 
within a circumscribed space; as when 300 peasant families raise 300 


COMBINATION OF ORDERS. 103 

patches of cabbages upon as many different points, where barely thirty 
are suited to their production. 

The Combined Order, cultivating a vast domain as if it were the 
property of a single individual , subject to no risk of theft , admits of the 
employment of the three modes in combination. This will guarantee, 
the attainment of the useful and the agreeable; it blends the advan¬ 
tages of production with those of beauty, facilitates the meetings of 
groups, heightens their rivalries, and stimulates them reciprocally 5 this 
is the union of the good and the beautiful. 

This distribution is impossible in Civilization, on account of the 
slight extent to which certain branches of cultivation are prosecuted ; 
for example, gardens and orchards, which the risk of theft and the 
want of capable cultivators restrict to a tenth of their natural pro¬ 
portion. 

But in the Combined Order, in which a great deal is consumed 
and a great deal exchanged between Associations, every branch of 
cultivation will, as far as possible, be developed in detail, selections 
being made of those varieties that will occupy Series. This is the rea¬ 
son why a single vegetable, like the pea, may be cultivated in inter¬ 
laced lines and scattered patches, which will furnish the different vari¬ 
eties necessary to occupy the different groups of a Series. These 
divisions, dispersed over the domain, may be interlinked in a hundred 
modes with the lines and detachments of other vegetables, and thus 
favor in every way the contact of groups, and their industrial unions. 

Then, as far as possible, the cultivation of all the varieties of fruits, 
vegetables, grains and flowers, will be interlinked, as well as the care 
of meadows and forests, of the streams and fish ponds, so that the 
groups may be brought in contact at every point, and a stimulus given 
to their leagues and rivalries. 

When .this compound method, which is the richest, can not be em¬ 
ployed, it will be necessary to resort to the second or mixed method, 
for even this lends a great incentive to industry; the civilized or sim¬ 
ple method, the massive order, will be adopted only when it is impos¬ 
sible to do better. 

However, in cases in which the massive order shall be necessitated 
by the character of the soil, care should be taken to diversify it by 
borders and altars of flowers and other means of ornament. The mas¬ 
sive order is not disagreeable and may become even noble, when it is 
properly applied and properly surrounded with other cultures. It is 


104 


COMBINATION OF ORDERS. 


insipid in the Civilized Order only by being employed to excess in 
every branch of cultivation, and from the absence of borders and other 
ornaments. 

Women will rarely have anything to do, except incidentally, in the 
massive order, which requires fatiguing labors; they will have func¬ 
tions in connection with it in the care of borders and the altars.* 

The agricultural alliance of the sexes would be but little suited to 
the Civilized Order, in which marriages are effected with difficulty ; it 
would be only an occasion for license, and the same may be said of 
the union of the different ages. The old men of the Civilized Order 
derive little or no advantage from intimacy with youth. 

This will not be the case in the Combined Order. It will be seen 
when we come to treat of Passional Ralliaxces, that all ages have 
ties of friendship in Harmony, and all share in the pleasure of the 
meetings of the sexes. And hence it is that special efforts will be 
made to connect or interlace the three industrial systems ; — 1. The 
simple or massive; 2. The ambiguous or vague ; 3. The compound or 
interlinked. 

We have now some indications of these interblendings in the vine¬ 
yards which are planted on hill-tops, with which are mingled rows 
and beds of vegetables, under rows of cherry, plum and other trees, 
about which climb vines of an inferior stock. These affiliations are a 
feeble representation of the material part of one of the three orders of 
agriculture, but they offer no image of the passional effects, because 
they bring about among us none of those meetings of divers groups 
which they will cause in the Combined Order, in which, when the 
work is completed, it is followed by a festive scene and a light repast 
in the pavilion of one of the groups. We will remark that the prin¬ 
cipal repasts are never served out of the Palace, except on occasions 
of necessity. 

* The women and children will take care of the rural altars which each group 
and each Series will raise in the center or at the angles of their favorite grounds, 
and which will serve to ally the sexes, and make them share in each other’s labors. 

Upon these altars, surrounded with flowers and shrubbery, the statues or busts 
of the patrons of the groups are placed, that is, of such persons as have excelled in 
its labors, and have enriched it with useful methods. They are for the groups ob¬ 
jects of veneration and homage. A group never commences its labors without burn¬ 
ing incense on the altar of its patron genius; as industry is in the eyes of the Har- 
monian the noblest of functions, continual care will be taken to ally with its exercise 
the religious spirit, and incentives to enthusiasm, such as a religious homage ren¬ 
dered to men who have benefited humanity by perfecting industry. 



COMBINATION OF OKDEKS. 


105 


The Combined Order will establish an affiliation of the sexes and 
of different cultures in branches which appear to us the least suscep¬ 
tible of it, as for example in the care of an extensive meadow, or of 
a vineyard, the location of which is determined by the nature of the 
soil. Means will be found to effect affiliations and interlinkings, the 
description of which would be insipid for the reader who is not fa¬ 
miliar with the details of associated Industry. 

Whichever mode of culture may be adopted,. there must always be 
a pavilion or little rural edifice within reach of the point of meeting, 
serving as a depot and containing dressing rooms. A group is to meet 
at half past six in the morning, for example, in a particular glade, to 
cultivate strawberries or raspberries; the members, mostly young 
women, will arrive from several points; for, after the morning colla¬ 
tion and parade at five o’clock, they will engage in other occupations 
in the gardens or the workshops; a pavilion then will be needed where 
a change of dress can be made — a common hall for refreshments and 
consultation. 

Means will be found to effect in all departments these industrial meet¬ 
ings of the groups ; it is impossible, for example, to unite two differ¬ 
ent kinds of manufacture in the same locality, and combine their oper¬ 
ations, but means will exist to form leagues in various ways; in 
agriculture, they will be formed in numberless modes. Before enter¬ 
ing upon a description of them, let us admit their possibility, and 
study the consequences which will result from them. 

If the Series of cherry or pear-growers did not throw out some 
detachments, some masses of trees in the vicinity of the vegetable and 
flower gardens; and if, on the other hand, the Series of florists and 
vegetable-grow r ers did not extend some lines or beds towards the 
cherry and pear orchards, there would be lost, not merely the charm 
of industrial reunions, but the interest for their respective labors, which 
is a source of pleasure and emulation. 

The groups and Series by these reunions acquire the same friend¬ 
ship for each other that regiments feel which have acted together in 
an engagement. The object is to bring all the Series to sustain and 
feel an interest in each other, and through this collective friendship, 
to attain one of the guarantees of Harmony, which is the distribution 
of profits according to the Labor, Capital and Talent of each member. 
Only by multiplying ties of interest, is it possible to arrive at an equi¬ 
librated distribution of the wealth annually created. 


106 


COMBINATION OF ORDERS. 


The greatest care then should be given to secure these interming- 
lings of diverse cultures, and the inlerlacings of groups, as they excite 
friendship and reciprocal interest. These affiliations of groups will take 
place even in a single pursuit; for example, in the orchestra which 
we now confide exclusively to men, various instruments, among others 
the violin, will be generally reserved for women. 

When" a union or numerical balance of the sexes shall be impossi¬ 
ble, it will be approximated more or less closely : even in labors which 
appear to belong exclusively to one sex, some additions will be made 
from the other; as for example, in the management of the wine cel¬ 
lars. If the Series of an Association, having the care of this branch, 
number two hundred, there will be at least twenty women, constitut¬ 
ing a group, that will exercise some branch of labor belonging to it, 
as for example, the management of the white sparkling wines, which 
would be attractive to women. 

The same rule will apply to labors now performed by women 
alone, such as washing, which will find some cooperators among the 
men. According to the law of exceptions, some men will have a taste 
for a branch of a labor, now considered feminine, not at first, but 
when an attraction for every branch and detail of Industry shall be 
developed among a generation reared in the Combined Order, accord¬ 
ing to its methods of education. The perfect distribution of labor in 
every branch will assign the execution of some part to the sex to 
which, as a whole, it does not belong; this arrangement will connect 
the sexes in every Series. There will be no need of all these inter¬ 
linkings of industrial pursuits in an Association on a reduced scale ; 
they can, to a great extent, be dispensed with. 

As the Series endeavor to establish among themselves alliances of 
groups and series, and interlinkings of various branches of culture, so 
the groups effect amalgamations and exchanges of members among 
themselves. As the duration of occupations is limited to two hours at 
the most, every one can take part in thirty or forty branches of indus¬ 
try, executing one detail, and thus becoming interested in their prosper¬ 
ity. This method of universal interlinking is the law of the eleventh 
Passion, called the Alternating, and of the twelfth, called the Compo¬ 
site. Now, it is to be remembered, that to create harmony, it is neces¬ 
sary to develop systematically, in the material as in the passional 
sphere, the three distributive Passions, which is the sole means of es¬ 
tablishing unity in the social relations of human beings. 


CHAPTER FIFTEENTH. 


UNION OF THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL BY THE COM* 
BINATION OF THE THREE ORDERS. 

In closing this sketch of the industrial relations of Association, we 
insist anew on the principal point, the necessity of combining the three 
orders of agriculture. They are employed here and there at present, 
but without skill and intelligence, and in such a way as to render 
them a caricature of what they might be. In proof of this, we may 
take the mixed or ambiguous order, an image of which we find in the 
co-called English gardens, such as the Petit-Trianon, Navarre, etc. 

These picturesque gardens are like the rural scenes of a theater— 
dreams of the beautiful in agriculture, miniatures of a landscape ar¬ 
ranged on the combined plan. But these are bodies without a soul, 
for in them we do not see the laborers at work ; and, indeed, it were 
better not to see them at all, than to meet in such scenes the poor 
and miserable peasants of Civilization. 

Such gardens need the animating presence of some twenty indus¬ 
trial groups, attractively engaged, and displaying in their dresses and 
implements a truly rural elegance. The Combined Order will be able, 
even in the commonest labors, to preserve a relative degree of neat¬ 
ness. The grey frocks of a group of ploughmen, the blue frocks of a 
group of mowers will be set off by embroidered edgings, and by belts 
and plumes; their carts and wagons will be neatly painted and var¬ 
nished, their harnesses decorated with inexpensive ornaments, and the 
whole so arranged as to be but little soiled in the work. 

If we could see. in a beautiful valley, laid out in the second or 
vague mode, a large number of groups in action, some under colored 
tents, with banners and music, singing hymns in chorus as they come 
and go ; the valley itself dotted with arbors, and pavilions with their col¬ 
onnades and spires, instead of thatched hovels and cottages, we should 
believe it an enchanted land, a fairy scene, an Olympic abode; and yet 
such a landscape would be comparatively monotonous, as it would ex- 


108 


COMBINATION OF ORDERS. 


Libit but one of the three orders of agriculture — the vague. The third 
or interlinked order would not appear in it, which is very brilliant in 
another way, and which gives to the whole vegetable growth of a do¬ 
main the appearance of a great army, executing different evolutions, 
each represented by some vegetable Series. 

In place of this unitary charm, we witness in the landscapes of 
Civilization a disgusting and ruinous confusion. Three hundred peasant 
families cultivate as many patches of cabbages or onions, confusedly 
blended and intertangled 5 this is an absolute caricature of the inter¬ 
linked order, which would distribute over a domain a hundred patches 
of a vegetable, divided into squares corresponding to varieties and 
shades of varieties, according to the nature of the soil, and arranged 
in divisions of wings, centers and transitions. 

Let us apply this method to the two vegetables which have ever 
been the favorites of the moralists and philosophers—to cabbages and 
turnips. The Series of cabbage-growers, in order to take advantage 
of all suitable soils, may extend its line of operations a mile in length, 
comprising three divisions, thirty plots, and three hundred beds. 

On the supposition that the center of the Series is engaged in front 
of the Palace,- the right wing being on the east, and the left on the 
west, there might be a mile between the two wings. These three di¬ 
visions will extend their beds of transition to different points, thus 
interlinking with other branches of cultivation. 

The same day on which the Series is at work in scattered groups 
at the foot of the hills, the Series of turnip-growers may likewise be at 
work upon the sides, displaying its banners upon its pavilions, sur¬ 
mounted with the insignia of its branch of industry ; it is possible that 
the two Series may be quite numerous, by the presence of detachments 
from neighboring Associations. 

The scene, highly animated by the presence of these groups scat¬ 
tered over it, will appear still more so from the influence of the gaiety 
and enthusiasm accompanying their works—emotions which are quite 
foreign to the occupations of our hired laborers, who on every pretext 
stop and rest on their spades to find some relief from the tedium ol 
toil. 

At this juncture, let us suppose that some philosopher, passing 
through the domain, contemplates from his carriage the gay spectacle 
presented by these Series, heirs of the virtues of Phocian and Denta- 
tus, engaged in the cultivation of his favorite vegetables, displaying 


COMBINATION OF ORDERS. 


109 


their banners on the heights and through the valley, thick-strewn with 
elegant pavilions, in the center of which rises the Palace of the As¬ 
sociation, majestically overlooking the whole. At this sight our phi¬ 
losopher will imagine himself transported into a now world, and will 
begin to think that the earth, when it shall be cultivated and adorned 
according to the associative or divine method, will eclipse all the beau¬ 
ties with which romance writers have embellished the Olympic abodes. 

To return to details : two Series, engaged in any branch of culture, 
will be careful not to occupy, after our style, large spaces without con¬ 
nection with other cultures. I mentioned in the preceding chapter, 
that they will take advantage of the varieties of the soil to interlink 
in a proper way the cultures in which they are engaged ; to throw 
out some beds into the grounds of neighboring Series, and form ties 
with them. 

Notwithstanding such an arrangement, a Series in its labors as a 
whole will not exhibit a thirtieth part of the complication to be seen 
in the three hundred petty gardens of as many peasants, nine-tenths 
of which are ill-placed for the planting and watering of a vegetable 
like the cabbage, and unsuited to the cultivation oti the different varie¬ 
ties, as would be the case if distributed over a large extent of soil, 
locating the beds at points where no other vegetable could be raised 
as well. 

When the quality of the land is equally suitable to a variety of 
vegetables, their lines may be interlinked in squares or rows, which is 
the third order. It is by the combination of this third order with the 
second or vague, and with the first or massive — with its borders and 
altars—that the fields, gardens, orchards, etc., of an Association, seen 
from a height, present in the vegetable kingdom the image of several 
large armies, or of the evolutions which it is possible for a single army 
to perform in succession. Even the forests exhibit a similar appear¬ 
ance, because they are broken by numerous cultivated glades, the dis¬ 
tribution of which constitutes a part of the amalgamated system of the 
three orders. 

To give activity to the agricultural movement, it matters little what 
Series are engaged. Tlie landscape presents even a more animated 
appearance, if in lieu of two Series, furnishing sixty groups, it is oc¬ 
cupied by detachments from thirty Series with two groups to each. 

Thus, instead of seeing upon a fine morning sixty groups of two 
Series, cultivating two fruits or vegetables, we should see but two of 
16 


110 


COMBINATION OF ORDERS. 


each of these Series, to which fifty-eight other groups are added, en 
gaged with other fruits and vegetables ; so that if varieties of cultivation 
are carried on, the scene will only be the more gay and diversified ; 
it will suffice to see the landscape occupied by a multitude of active 
groups, and the background of the picture sufficiently covered with 
workmen. 

As -occupations will be of but short duration, these groups will be 
frequently seen in a state of general movement at the hours of half¬ 
past six, half-past eight, and half past ten in the morning, and likewise 
in the afternoon. Such activity is not witnessed in our fields, where 
the laborer is at work in one place the entire day through. 

The charm arising from such scenes would be simple merely, if the 
actors in them were, as now, made up of the famished masses whose 
condition excited our pity. It would be the beautiful isolated from 
the good, according to the civilized method, which produces the beau¬ 
tiful only at the expense of the good ; for whatever beauty it presents 
in parks, gardens, etc., is generally unproductive ; while the places 
in which the good and the useful coexist — its cultivated fields and its 
manufactories — present but a sad spectacle to him who loves justice, 
for he finds in them hungry cultivators and workmen, three-fourths of 
whom do not eat their full, and when the dog-star rages, can not com¬ 
mand a glass of wine to prevent a fever, nor a movable tent for their 
shelter when harvesting ; while in the neighboring city, the idlers and 
loungers, gathered under elegant awnings, delect themselves with ices, 
cordials, and every delicacy. 

This comfort, this elegance of Civilization will in the Combined 
Order be allied with the good, with the charms of productive indus¬ 
try. If the grounds of a domain are covered with a hundred groups, 
each of the hundred will be provided with those luxuries which the 
Civilized Order secures only to the idle rich ; each will have in its 
pavilion a supply of provisions, fruits and wines ; and if the occupa¬ 
tion is not one of those which end with a repast, some baskets of re¬ 
freshments at least will be sent from the Palace to the different groups. 
Thus will be preserved an alliance between the good and the beautiful , 
the useful and the agreeable, which in Harmony are always united, 
but in Civilization are always separated. 

We are for the most part rendered insensible to the wretchedness 
attendant upon agricultural life in Civilization by the eulogies of one 
class of writers, and the pictures of rural pleasures of another class; 


COMBINATION OF ORDERS. 


Ill 


but in truth what is there so agreeable in the labors of a band of peas¬ 
ants, who suffer often hunger and thirst under the burning sun of the 
dog-days, and who, at noon, eat silently a crust of black bread with a 
glass of water, each by himselfj because he who has a bit of rancid 
pork is unwilling to share it with his fellows ? What is there to gratify 
the u love of the beautiful ” at the sight of the privations of such poor 
creatures ? It requires all the authority of poets to delude us with 
their pastorals and idylls. 

If our rural labors, soberly examined, are not pleasing to the senses, 
they are none the less insipid to the soul. The poor workman is not 
drawn to his labors from the incentives of friendship, love or ambition, 
that is, from the pleasure of working in groups in which these affec¬ 
tions are gratified ; nor from the incentives of the three Distributive 
Passions. Three hundred poor families of a hamlet, cultivating three 
hundred patches of cabbages, find no incentives : 

1. In the Composite or the love of enthusiasm. In their mean 
and closely-walled gardens, there is no charm for the intellect nor the 
senses. The laborer in-his work is moved only by the sad incentive 
of escaping from famine, of securing a few poor cabbages for food to 
sustain his w r ife and hungry children:—besides which he has the task 
of watching by night against neighbors, who would steal his cabbages 
if not guarded. All such motives are very foreign to the enthusiasm 
which the Composite requires. 

2. In the Emulative, or the love of rivalry ; for in the cultivation 
of his beds of cabbages, the peasant is not impelled by the rivalry of 
competitors to attain perfection — does not dream of selecting varieties, 
nor of leagues with co-w r orkers. He has no other end than to fill his 
poor philosophic kettle — with the meanest even of cabbages, while he 
prays God that he may always be so happy as to get even such. 

3 . In the love of Alternation and Change, for w r hile he "eats his 
sorry soup of cabbage, grown hard for want of watering, he can not 
vary its varieties, nor taste during the course of a year a hundred 
kinds from his own and neighboring Associations, which, in creating 
emulation, would give a zest to their culture. 

Thus we see that in our rural labors, as in our civilized workshops, 
every operation is severed from the good and the beautiful, which, at 
present, exist only in the dreams of the poets. But. even the poets in 
their fictions are in conflict with the real nature of man ; they depict 
Duplmis and Chloe with shepherds’ crooks, keeping watch over tender 


112 


COMBINATION OF OEDEES. 


flocks. In such pictures there is nothing in harmony with practical 
truth. In the Combined Order, the shepherds while driving immense 
flocks will be mounted on fine horses, and surrounded by well-trained 
dogs which will see that every movement is rightly made ; the flocks 
in Association will be exceedingly numerous ; their shepherds will be 
relieved every two hours like our sentinels. While thus engaged, they 
will have neither shepherds’ crooks, nor red ribands, nor any of the 
trifling fooleries which civilized poetry assigns them. In these fictions, 
as everywhere else, it has no more conception of the beautiful in 
agriculture, than Political Economy has of the good in that depart¬ 
ment. 

The union of the beautiful and the good in agriculture depends 
upon the amalgamation of the three orders: these are not even known 
to civilized cultivators, who only employ the three caricatures of them, 
namely : 

1 . Of the massive order in their large forests and fields ; the lat¬ 
ter, so foolishly extolled by the poets, exhibit the most unattractive 
and monotonous aspect; whilst their forests, never broken by glades, 
are a chaos of huge and slightly productive masses, inasmuch as their 
density intercepts the influence of the solar rays. 

2 . Of the vague order in their mixed system of cultivation, which 
tends only to encourage theft, excite law-suits without enkindling emu¬ 
lation, and give rise to all the inconvenience of isolated properties. 

3. Of the interlinked order in their scattered and disorderly sys¬ 
tem ; as when in' a hamlet containing thirty gardens but three kinds 
of vegetables are cultivated ; while an Association, in as many gardens, 
would cultivate three hundred species and varieties. 

Thus the civilized system runs into three extremes, which are the 
opposite of a true method of distribution : every thing in large masses, 
or every' thing isolated. 

How many errors on the part, not only of the poets, but of the 
political economists and other classes of men of science, who under¬ 
take to point out the paths to the Good, when none of them have the 
genius to perceive that neither the good nor the beautiful is compat¬ 
ible with Civilization, and that instead of seeking to introduce the 
good into such a society, which is a veritable sink of vice and oppres¬ 
sion, the only wise course is to discover an issue from Civilization, in 
order to enter the path of social good. 

What, abandon Civilization ? abandon its perfections, among others: 


COMBINATION OF OEDEES. 


113 


1. Poverty ; 2. Fraud ; 3. Oppression ; 4. Carnage ; 5. Climatic De¬ 
rangement ; 6. Diseases artificially generated ; 7. Circle of error. 

_ c General Selfishness. 

Pivots { n . 

C Duplicity of Action. 

The idea of escaping from these nine social perfections arouses the 
ire of all the advocates and defenders of the old moral and philo¬ 
sophic theories, who are wedded to the prejudices which thirty centu¬ 
ries have so deeply impressed upon the human mind. 


CHAPTER SIXTEENTH. 


SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS OF THE COMBINED ORDER. 

To the sketches of material arrangements, which we have given in the 
preceding chapters, we will add a few of a social and moral character. 

If we suppose ourselves transported into an Association, after it has 
been for a period in full operation, the first thing that will strike us 
is the freedom from all care and anxiety that exists as regards, pecu¬ 
niary matters. We shall see people engaged in attractive occupations, 
giving no thought to material-wants, or to the means of acquiring 
wealth for the future. Even men with large families, so harassed by 
anxiety in Civilization, will be entirely relieved from care, as they will 
be certain, both for themselves and their families, of an ample compe¬ 
tency lor the present and the future. Attractive Industry will induce 
all to engage voluntarily in its pursuits ;■ and as productive occupa¬ 
tions, adapted to women and children, will be open to them, they will 
become producers ; there will be no idlers, no non-producers ; all will 
earn more than they will consume. 

Universal animation and gayety will reign in Association; the cause 
will be found in this freedom from care, in the attractiveness of in¬ 
dustry, and in the variety and frequent alternations of pursuits. Life 
is at present a continual punishment for the masses, who must pass 
their lives in the same dull round of monotonous toil. The rich even 
suffer from irksome cares, or from constant application to occupations, 
forced upon them by their position. Such conditions of life will be 
unknown in the Combined Order. To attractive industrial pursuits 
will also be added enjoyments of a spiritual nature—the sentiments 
of corporate friendship and ambition, of party interest and generous 
emulation, which will give a zest to every occupation of life. 

One of the most important ends to be secured is this creation of 
ties between persons of different characters, tastes, acquirements and 
degrees of fortune — ties that will call out a sincere friendship among 
all classes — even among those now the most widely separated, like 
the rich and the poor—and generate mutual confidence and devotion. 


SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 


115 


A most efficient means of conciliating interests of persons of dif¬ 
ferent degrees of fortune, is the spirit of compound and associated 
property. The poorest member of an Association, if he possesses but 
a single share Of its stock, is co-proprietor of the entire establishment. 
He can'say, “Our lands, our edifices, our fields and forests, our man¬ 
ufactories.” He is a joint owner of all; he is interested in the landed 
and personal estate of the entire Association. 

In the present order it is otherwise ; if a flood, for example, carries 
away the soil on the banks of a stream, the three-quarters of the in¬ 
habitants have none upon it, and are indifferent to the damage done. 
If the forest of a rich man is ravaged, the poor around are often glad 
of it; it is simple property, without any ties with their interests; they 
are rejoiced at what may injure an envied neighbor, and aid secretly 
in the work of destruction. 

In the Combined Order, in which all branches of industry are di¬ 
rectly or indirectly associated, and in which every individual is a 
copartner, unity of the individual with the collective interest is neces¬ 
sarily the result. Every member will desire the success of the entire 
Association ; he would suffer to some extent from an injury done to 
any part of the domain or the edifices, or from a loss sustained by any 
branch of industry. Thus from personal interest, from the fact that 
the members, of an Association are not hired workmen, but co-inter- 
ested partners, mutual good-will and general sympathy will exist 
among them. 

We know the effect which associated interests and the sentiment of 
individual property exercise upon men. An individual who appeared 
indifferent and inert, when working for wages or a salary, becomes 
diligent and attentive if received as a copartner, with an interest in 
the business. u He is no longer the same man,” it is often remarked, 
11 he is entirely changed.” What has produced this result ? It is the 
spirit of compound property. His talent and labor are all the more 
valuable, as he employs them, not only for himself alone, but for a 
large number of associates ; he does not work for his exclusive inter¬ 
ests, as is the case, for example, with the isolated farmer, whose rural 
life is the theme of so much eulogy on the part of the moralists, but 
which in fact is a purely selfish existence. Our mistaken moralists are 
forever extolling the very principles which are the sources of the self¬ 
ishness, antagonism and discord they afterwards denounce. 

The intluence of associated interests in calling out zeal and devo- 


116 


SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS 


tion, so marked at present, will be far more powerful in the Combined 
Order, in which those interests will be accompanied and heightened by 
noble and generous sympathies. To conform to the tendency of Civi¬ 
lized modes of thought, which is to consider only simple springs of 
action in social affairs, and those springs of a material character, I 
have indicated the influence which compound pecuniary interests alone 
would exercise, leaving aside the noble spiritual incentives which Asso¬ 
ciation will create, such as collective friendship, corporate pride and 
sympathy, the desire of the collective good, and other generous sym¬ 
pathies, which the industrial Series will constantly develop and bring 
to bear upon Industry. 

The first end to be attained, in morals as well as in social politics, 
is to establish among all classes of society unity of interests and identity 
of views upon all matters of a pecuniary character. So long as this 
end is not attained, how can we talk of social unity and true morality ? 
What unity can there exist in an industrial system, in which the inter¬ 
ests of the different classes of Society, as'in Civilization, are in con¬ 
flict, and in which those classes seek to deceive and spoliate each 
other ? What morality can we look for in an order of things in which 
the individual interest is opposed to the collective ? Can such an or¬ 
der produce anything else than the two pivotal characteristics of Civ¬ 
ilization— Universal Selfishness: Duplicity of Action ? 

Another point — and an important one — on which I will touch, is 
that relating to Domestic Service. How will this Service, in which 
are to be included waiting on the tables, care of private apartments, 
and all attentions of an individual character, be performed without 
violating the sentiment of personal independence , and without dishonor 
to those engaged in it ? 

In an Association, Domestic Service will be performed, like every 
other branch of work, by Series, which will assign a Group to each 
department of the service. These Groups, when on duty , will bear the 
title of Pages. This name is now given to those who serve Princes ; 
how much more appropriately will it be applied to those who serve 
an Association, for this unitary body is a living image of God, the 
manifestation of the Divine Spirit on earth, as it is composed of the 
complete scale of the twelve spiritual forces or passions, harmonized by 


Attraction, 

Practical Truth, 
Mathematical Exactness, 



SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 


117 


To serve the Association as a Collective Being, is to serve God : 
it is in this light that, in the Combined Order, Domestic service will 
be regarded. If this primary branch of social functions were, as at 
present looked upon as a menial occupation, it would separate classes 
entirely, and destroy social unity. 

To this ideal ennobling of Domestic service, will be added the prac¬ 
tical ennobling of it by abolishing all individual dependence ; the in¬ 
dividual would be lowered, if hired or made subject to the desires and 
caprices of another. This will be avoided by the system of free and 
collective domestic service. 

No member of an Association will individually perform the functions 
of a domestic, or be devoted to the service of a single person. The 
function will be performed, as we stated, by a Series of Pages, who 
will be devoted to the collective service of the Association. Under 
this system the poorest individual of an Association will be waited 
upon at the tables, in his rooms and elsewhere, by a number of in¬ 
telligent and friendly pages. He will be as attentively served as the 
richest of the members, for it is not the individual served who pays 
those who serve him. A Page would be dishonored were he to receive 
any personal recompense. The Series of Pages are paid by the Asso¬ 
ciation ; they receive, like other Series, a dividend taken from that 
portion of the general product awarded to labor and talent. This div¬ 
idend is divided — as is customary in the Series — among the members 
according to their capacity and assiduity. 

Individual dependence is, then, fully secured, inasmuch as the pages 
are devoted to the service of the Association, not of the individual, 
who for this reason is served from friendly motives — a pleasure which, 
in Civilization, can not be procured even by paying well for it. In 
the Combined Order, friendship and corporate ties in other Series will 
determine the choice of the Pages as to those whom they serve. A 
Page would not select as the object of his attentions members of 
groups whose tastes were opposed to his own, and whose, rivalries he 
did not espouse. Thus groups as well as individuals would find in 
their Pages a preference, based both on friendship and corporate sym¬ 
pathy. We shall see every where this double tie created between those 
who serve and those who are served. It will be an important point 
gained to create this sympathetic accord between the two classes, and 
to call out reciprocal devotion. This is one of the features of the Com¬ 
bined Order, which is the furthest removed from the habits of Civili- 
16 * 


118 


SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 


zation, which in every way establishes discords between classes, and 
calls out innumerable antipathies and jealousies. What can be more op¬ 
posed to social concord and unity than the present condition of the two 
classes — servants and hired laborers? In reducing this poor multitude 
to a state bordering closely upon slavery, Civilization, as a counter re¬ 
sult, entails evils and imposes fetters on those who appear to profit 
by this state of things. Compare the charms of a system of attractive, 
sympathetic and intelligent domestic service with the distrust, antipa¬ 
thies and disgusts of the present coerced system, and we shall see that 
the privileged classes suffer with those below them. 

These brief explanations are sufficient to show that there will be 
nothing mercenary or servile in the Domestic Service of the Combined 
Order ; that a group of chambermaids, a group of waiters, is like any 
other group, a free and honorable body, which is paid from out of the 
general product of the Association a sum proportionate to the value of 
its labors. Besides, a member of one of the above mentioned groups 
may, an hour after its work is over in the dining halls or elsewhere, 
be found in other groups, cooperating with members on whom he 
waited previously, and who may hold an inferior position as regards 
capacity or skill. 

The Groups of Pages that wait upon the tables will be composed 
for the most part of young persons — of children between the ages of 
nine and fifteen : they will perform the work with more alacrity and 
willingness than grown persons; besides such a service will have 
nothing dishonoring whatever for them. 

The minute division of labor in the department of domestic service 
will be one source of attractiveness ; the Series of Pages will contain 
a large number of members, and each will attend to- but one detail, 
not to all branches as at present. She who has a taste for the care of 
linen, will not wish to take charge of woolens. The large number of 
members will abridge and give animation to occupations ; it will be 
by means of this minute division that every member of an Association 
will see some one attending to the least of his wants, even to that of 
being called at a given hour in the morning, indicated by a ticket 
with the time upon it, placed on his door opening on the gallery. 

Thus every one will be served by persons animated by a compound 
motive — by corporate pride and by personal friendship ; for, as we 
stated, the Pages will choose, those as objects of their attentions for 
whom they feel, a personal sympathy. 


SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 


119 


The Domestic service of Civilization produces effects which are in 
every way the opposite of those we have described. We see at pre¬ 
sent between the immense majority of masters and servants double 
and quadruple sources of misunderstanding and dissatisfaction ; they 
grow out of incompatability of character, of distrust and fear of theft, 
of impatience and vexation, caused by unskillfulness and ignorance on 
the part of servants on the one hand ; and of indignation against the 
tyrannical exactions of masters, of jealousy of position, of the rancour 
produced by ill-treatment, injustice and sordidness on the other; these 
and numerous other causes of discord compel the rich to declare that 
servants are among the greatest of their troubles. The complaint may 
be uttered with equal truth in another way by servants. 

If we compare other relations of the Combined with those of the 
Civilized Order, w T e shall find the same contrast. The degree of evil 
engendered by the latter, which is a false or inverted state, must cor¬ 
respond to the degree of good which will be evolved by the former — 
by a natural or harmonic state ; this is an inflexible law of Nature. 
If God has destined Man to Association, is it not necessary and inevi¬ 
table that he must be unhappy out of the condition designed for him 
by Providence, and that discord and conflict are unavoidable unless 
that order is established ? 

A third point on which I will touch, is the direction which Ele¬ 
gance and Luxury will take in the Combined Order. We have seen 
how the spirit of Compound Property, and a system of corporate and 
collective Domestic Service tend to promote passional accords, and cre¬ 
ate ties of affection between individuals and classes. We will now 
examine how a similar influence will be exercised by rendering ele¬ 
gance and luxury corporate and collective, instead of personal and 
exclusive, as they are in the present Order. 

The form and direction, which elegance and ornament take, vary 
in the different social periods. In the Barbaric period, ornament is 
personal. The Barbarian bedecks himself with gold and other orna¬ 
ments ; in his dress he appears a Croesus ; but visit the interior of his 
dwelling, and you will find it furnished more scantily than that of a 
laborer in Civilization. On the other hand, the Civilizee displays his 
wealth in his residence, furniture and equipages ; while personally his 
dress is often plainer than that of his servants. 

It is evident, then, that the taste for elegance and display takes 
different forms and directions in the different social periods; in pass- 


120 


SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 


ing from Civilization to higher social states, it is quite possible that it 
may assume forms entirely different from those which now exist, and 
which are a result of our civilized customs and habits. 

The Combined Order will be most sumptuous in ils display and 
elegance, but they will be Corporate , not Personal. It will be the de¬ 
sire of every one to give brilliancy to the Groups and Series to which 
he belongs ; even now we see the germ of this inclination in some of 
the corporate bodies of Civilization ; in the army, for example, a 
wealthy Colonel will often expend a large sum to distinguish his regi¬ 
ment, either by its music, colors or the ornaments of its uniforms ; he 
may himself be negligent in his dress, while going to great expense 
to ornament that of a Thousand of his subalterns. 

Every corporate body is animated by this corporate pride. Our 
moral theories make of pride a mortal sin ; the Series will make of it 
a cardinal virtue—a virtue from the practice of which they will, among 
other advantages, derive that of emulation and perfection in all branches 
of industry. 

If our corporate bodies have at present an aversion for whatever 
has an appearance of poverty, it is easy to conceive that those of the 
Combined Order will have an aversion for whatever has the appear¬ 
ance even of mediocrity. The Association furnishes to each Group all 
that is necessary to neatness and efficiency ; the wealthy members will 
add elegance and sumptuousness. 

Let us suppose that two men of wealth are members of rival 
Groups, engaged in the cultivation of two varieties of fruit, the breed¬ 
ing of two favorite varieties of the horse, or the exercise of two sim¬ 
ilar branches of art; they will feel the same pride in embellishing 
their branches of industry or art, that a man of large fortune now feels 
in fitting up sumptuously his private residence. They will construct 
beautiful depots or pavilions, if engaged in agriculture, in the place 
of the neat but plain ones which the Association furnishes ; or will 
fit up with great elegance the stables in which their favorite breeds of 
horses are kept. Thus the love of elegance and display will become, 
as we remarked, corporate and collective, instead of personal and ex¬ 
clusive, as it is in Civilization. Through this change in the direction 
which the love of elegance will take, every Series in the Combined 
Order will be efficiently and magnificently equipped. The sums de¬ 
voted by opulent members to such purposes will be accepted, not as 
a favor, but as a liberal offering, made to coufer distinction upon the 


SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 


121 


corporate body and its branch of industry, and to sustain its rank 
among the groups of its own and neighboring Association. 

In some respects, the expense and display of the Combined Order 
will be much less than what they are at present. The millionaire now 
requires a palace for his personal convenience ; in Association, three 
or four rooms will suffice him ; for, in this new order, social rela¬ 
tions are too engrossing to allow any one to remain in his private 
apartments. The members of an Association will be continually in 
the fields or gardens, in the workshops, stables or public halls. No 
one will remain in his own rooms, except in cases of sickness or of a 
special appointment. As a consequence, a parlor and bedroom will be 
all that will be required; the rich will not have more than three 
rooms. 

The etiquette and manners of the Combined Order will differ widely 
from those which now prevail. No useless visits, for Example, will be 
made, consuming valuable time; people will see each other often 
enough at the tables, in the industrial groups, at the Exchange, or at 
evening parties. A stranger, visiting the Association, will call on those 
he wishes to see while at their occupations. If you wish to pay to 
some wealthy member a visit that will be agreeable to him, go find 
him in the gardens or the orchards, where he is engaged with his 
group, and in his working dress; at the close of the session of labor 
you will breakfast with him and the other members in the elegant 
summer-house, built at his expense. It is here that he likes to make 
a display, and to excite admiration for the industry of beloved col¬ 
leagues, over whom he presides. Thus the customs and the policy of 
the Combined Order will tend to transfer to productive Industry that 
elegance, that eclat now attached to unproductive, often destructive 
occupations, while the fields and workshops are left in a disgusting 
state of neglect. 

The splendor and luxury of the Combined Order will thus be de¬ 
voted to the service of useful labor, of the sciences, the arts and of 
the culinary department. They will, in conjunction with other incen¬ 
tives, aid in rendering Industry attractive. Then will end the distinc¬ 
tion between producers and consumers which exists in Civilization. In 
the' Combined Order all will be producers ; we shall see in following 
chapters, that the natural education of this Order, which is the same 
for all the children, will initiate them equally, the richest as well as 
the poorest, into all branches of industry, and secure them health, dex- 


122 


SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 


terity and knowledge — a three-fold advantage of which the child in 
Civilization is for the most part deprived. 

As soon as the Rich possess physical strength, and Industry is ren¬ 
dered Attractive, they will become producers as well as consumers. No 
distinction will then be made between these two functions ; they will 
'always be found united in the same individual. Then will end the 
most ridiculous of our social contradictions — that which creates a class 
destined to consume without producing. How can a Social Order, 
with such a policy, talk of Political Economy, when it violates in a 
two-fold manner the simplest principles of justice and economy : 

First: by extending to the class that produces nothing every social 
advantage, every guarantee of protection and well-being. 

Second : by withholding from the class that produces every thing 
the guarantee of a minimum of support, and the right of Labor. 

We see hei% a double absurdity; but, it will be answered, it is 
inevitable in Civilization. Of this I am fully aware ; hence I have 
constantly repeated, that if our political and economic guides wish to 
establish principles of sound economy and political justice in society, 
they must discover an exodus from Civilization, which is a ridiculous 
compound of all economic and political absurdities. 


COMPOUND INTEGRAL, 

OR 

UNITARY EDUCATION OF ASSOCIATION. 


CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH. 

UNITY OF EDUCATION IN THE COMBINED ORDER. 

There is no problem on which men have reasoned more diversely 
and vaguely than on public instruction and its methods. In this de¬ 
partment of social polity, Nature has confounded all their theories. 

To escape from the chaos of present systems, let us lay down some 
positive principles for our guidance ; let us determine the end to be 
attained, and then the course to be pursued to attain it. 

In every operation of Association the end is Unity : to secure it, 
Education must be Compound and Integral. 

Compound —developing at the same time the physical and the 
spiritual, or the body and the soul, neither of which is accomplished 
by our present systems of education. We shall prove in the course of 
the present treatise that our civilized methods neglect the body, and 
pervert the soul. 

Integral — extending to and embracing all parts of the body, and 
all the faculties of the soul, perfecting both to the highest degree. It 
will be seen that our civilized systems thwart the natural developments 
of the body, and neglect the soul or corrupt it by selfishness and du¬ 
plicity. 

In these introductory remarks, we will omit the consideration of 
physical education, and speak of education only in its moral and polit¬ 
ical aspect, that is, in its unitary sense, for there can be no true social 
nor moral polity that diverges from Unity, which is the polity of God. 

The first object of harmonic education will be to develop in earliest 




124 


UNITY OF EDUCATION. 


childhood those Vocations for which there is a natural aptitude, a natu- i 
ral instinct, and to guide each individual to those functions to which 
Nature destined him. Our civilized methods pay, with rare exceptions, 
no attention to this first principle of a true education, hut seek to | 
mould the young mind to suit the prejudices of parents or the inter- | 
ests of classes. 

No question is less understood than that of natural vocations, or the \ 
instinct for industrial and other functions. This problem will be cleared ( 
up by the system of harmonic education. It will develop in the child, ► 
not a talent for a single vocation, but for some thirty, graduated and 
predominant in different degrees. 

The first aim of Nature being to direct Man to material wealth, to I 
riches and luxury,—the first Focus of Attraction,—Education should 
aid Nature in her designs and attract him to productive labor; but ; * 
she can only do this by removing an evil that disgraces Civilization, ; ; 
and which does not exist in the Savage state ; it is the coarseness and 
rudeness of the lower classes, and the discordance between them and 
the upper classes in language and manners. This coarseness may be J 
necessary in the present social state, in which the masses, oppressed j 
by poverty and toil, would feel too keenly their privations if they 1 
were polished and cultivated ; but in Association, in which wealth j 
will be universal, and the whole people will possess the guarantee of . 
abundance, it will not be necessary to render them coarse and ignor- I 
ant in order to inure them to privations that will cease to exist, and j 
enable them to undergo labors which will not be repulsive and op- j 
pressive, as the Serial organization will render them attractive. 

Industry, having become attractive by a proper organization, will 
render necessary the education and refinement of the laboring classes; I 
for if associated Industry is to attract the rich as well as the poor, the j 
coarseness and rudeness of the latter would be alone sufficient to coun¬ 
terbalance the attractions which the new industrial system, would offer 
to the former. The polished classes would never consent to labor in 
concert with rude boors, and mingle with them in their works. Thus, 
for the purpose of securing the welfare of the people, and to induce 
the rich to engage in productive industry, the masses must in the Com¬ 
bined Order be no longer rude and unrefined; on the contrary, they 
must rival the rich in politeness, so that the pleasure of agreeable so¬ 
cial relations may be combined with that of industry in the pursuits 
of agriculture and manufactures. 





UNITY OF EDUCATION. 


125 


General politeness and unity of language and of mauners can re« 
suit only from a system of collective education, which shall give to 
the poor the culture and polish of the rich. 

If the Combined Order had, like Civilization, different degrees of 
education, some for the rich and some for the poor, it would arrive at 
the same result which we have, namely, the incompatibility of classes 
and duplicity of manners, the latter being coarse and rude among the 
poor, and refined among the rich. Such a state of things would be a 
source of general discord; it is therefore the first thing to be- avoided 
in the social polity of the Combined Older; it will guard against it 
by a system of education which will be one for the entire Association, 
and for the entire globe, and which will every where establish unity 
of manners and general politeness. 

Let us not confound Unity with Equality. Unity of habits, man¬ 
ners and language does not imply equality of fortunes, characters, etc., 
or uniformity of any kind. It will not be pretended, for example, that 
in order to avoid equality and monotonous uniformity — both entirely op¬ 
posed to the social nature of man, which requires graduated inequali¬ 
ties and diversities of every kind — the poorer classes should be smaller 
in stature, or physically different from the richer. Physical Unity re¬ 
quires the bodies of all classes of men to be of the same stature: this con¬ 
stitutes Simple Unity, limited to the material or physical nature of man. 

Compound Unity , which embraces both the material and the pas¬ 
sional, and which can be established only in the Combined or Harmonic 
Order, demands that human beings should be identical as respects the 
development of the faculties of the soul, and the functions of the body, 
and that they should be homogeneous in habits and manners, though 
unequal in fortune and in many other respects. 

From the moment Labor is rendered attractive, it will be neces¬ 
sary that the industrial classes be intelligent and refined. It would 
destroy the pleasure of the industrial unions of the Series, if they re¬ 
tained the coarse manners of Civilization. To give charm and emu¬ 
lation to those unions, unity of manners and general politeness must 
reign. The Harmonians will feel as much sympathy for each other as 
the Civilizees feel indifference or antipathy ; an Association will con¬ 
sider itself as one family, well united ; now, an opulent family can not 
allow one of its members to be deprived of the education which the 
others have received. 

To educate the entire body of the children of an Association in 


126 


UNITY OF EDUCATION. 


politeness and establish unity in their manners, the most efficient in¬ 
strumentality will be the Opera — the school of material Harmonies — 
attendance upon which will be for them a semi-religious exercise; for 
the Opera in the Combined Order is emblematic of Divine harmony, 
of the Unity which God causes to reign in the system of the uni¬ 
verse. It is the combination of all material unities; as a consequence, 
the children in Association will take part in it in order to exercise 
themselves in material harmony, which prepares the way for passional 
or spiritual harmony. 

The Opera will be as necessary to an Association as its flocks and 
agricultural implements ; and this not alone for the purpose of furnish¬ 
ing its members with an entertainment of an elevating and refining 
character, but to educate the young, and form and fashion them to 
material harmonies. Every Association will have, when the Combined 
Order is fully established over the earth, an Opera equal to those 
of our largest capitals. 

The Opera — this assemblage of the material harmonies — will sat¬ 
isfy the demands both of Attraction and Reason ; the first, as it will 
draw the young passionately to it, aud will instruct them in its har¬ 
monies ; second, as parents will see in it the basis of a true physical 
and industrial education, and a symbolic initiation into the principles 
of social harmony. 


GENERAL PLAN OF THE PHASES AND EXERCISES OF EDUCATION IN THE 

COMBINED ORDER. 

I divide Education into two Vibrations, and four Phases, which in¬ 
clude the young choirs in the following order : 

(Children less then three years of age not reckoned in the Scale.) 
Inferior Vibration — two phases. 

1st Phase— Choirs of Infantiles comprising the children from three 
to four and a half years of age. 

J Choirs of Cherubs: children from four and a half to six 
and a half. 

Choirs of Seraphs: children from six and .a half to nine. 
Superior Vibration — two phases. 
r Choirs of Lyceans: children from nine to twelve. 

3d Phase— < Choirs of Gymnasians: youths from twelve to fifteen 
t and a half. 

Choirs of Juveniles: Young persons from fifteen and a 
half to twenty. 


4tii Phase 




UNITY OF EDUCATION. 


127 


Each of those four “phases is subject to a special system, both as re¬ 
gards instruction and the amount of liberty allowed it. Although 
children in the Combined Order enjoy perfect freedom in everything 
not injurious to them, there are limits to be set to their freedom ; it 
would be folly to allow a child of three years to handle the little 
hatchets and other edge tools scattered about the workshops. He is 
admitted to such privileges only by degrees, that is, as he enters the 
older Choirs; when admitted to that of the Cherubs, he gains the 
right to handle certain utensils, such as little saws; but the use of 
hatchets will not be allowed him till he enters the choir of the 
Seraphs. 

In the first two phases of Infancy, a preponderance will be given 
to material over spiritual education, without, however, neglecting the 
latter. 

In the last two phases, spiritual education will preponderate over 
the material. 

This contrast corresponds to the faculties of the different ages. In 
the choirs of the first two phases, including children from three to nine, 
it is of more importance to develop the body than the mind ; and in 
the two choirs of Lyceans and Gymnasians, from the age of nine to 
fifteen and a half, more attention will be bestowed upon the cultiva¬ 
tion of the mind. 

It does not follow, however, that the Combined Order will entirely 
neglect to cultivate the mind and heart of the young at any age. 
Children in this Order will be more developed spiritually at four years 
of age than the children of the Civilized Order are at ten. The cul¬ 
tivation of the physical nature does not forbid that of the mind ; but 
as there is' danger in exercising the mind too early, corporeal training 
should preponderate in infancy, according to the following scale of ex¬ 
ercises, adapted to the six choirs of childhood. 

Whenever a child desires to be advanced from one choir to a 
higher, it is subjected to an examination in a certain number of exer¬ 
cises and lessons. 

1. To advance from the choir of Infantiles to that of the Cherubs ; 
seven physical exercises, left to the choice of the child, will be de¬ 
manded. These exercises will require dexterity of different parts of 
the body, for example : 

1. An exercise of the left hand and arm. 

2. An exercise of the right hand and arm. 


128 


UNITY OF EDUCATION. 


3. An exercise of the left foot and l<rg. 

4. An exercise of the right foot and leg. 

5. An exercise of both hands and both arms. 

6. An exercise of both legs and both feet. 

7. An exercise of all the four members. 

Furthermore, an exercise on an intellectual subject—on the first oi the 
three attributes of God; the Economy of Means — which of the three 
primary attributes of the Deity is the most intelligible to children : 

]. Economy of Means. 

2. Distributive Justice. 

3. Universality of Providence. 

Pivot — Unity of System. 

2. To advance from the choir of Cherubs to that of Seraphs , there 
will be greater severity in the exercises and lessons : they will number 
twelve. Seven will be physical, following the same series as the fore¬ 
going, but consisting of more difficult exercises; and five will be men¬ 
tal upon little themes within the capacity of a child of six years. In 
addition, one pivotal lesson on the second attribute of God — Distribu¬ 
tive Justice. 

3. To advance from the choir of Seraphs to that of Lyceans: six¬ 
teen exercises and lessons will be demanded, half of which will be 
physical and half mental ; in addition, one pivotal lesson on the third 
attribute of God — the Universality of Providence. 

4. To advance from the choir of Lyceans to that of Gymnasians: 
twenty exercises will be demanded, eight physical and twelve mental, 
with a pivotal lesson on the Unity of system in the Divine government 
of the universe. 

5. To advance from the choir of Gymnasians to that of Juveniles , 
twenty-four exercises and lessons selected at pleasure, nine physical 
and fifteen mental, with a general lesson on all the Divine attributes. 

The judges are taken from the choir into which admission is asked; 
to these will be joined certain teachers as consultants. 

If the greater* part of the exercises demanded of the infantile choirs 
are physical, it is because the natural impulses of that age may be 
conformed to — impulses which attract the young child almost entirely 
to material occupations. In the Combined Order, there is as much 
care taken to aid and second Attraction, and favor the impulses of 
nature, as there is in the Civilized Order to stifle them. 

As the Education of children terminates with the choir of Juveniles, 




UNITY OF EDUCATION. 129 

to pass from that choir to those of adults, no further examinations 
will be required. 

The minute details thus far given will not constitute an invariable 
rule as respects numbers : I do not pretend that the numbers assigned 
for the lessons and exercises of the children must be invariably fol¬ 
lowed. I only lay down the principle of a progressive and alternating 
method, and present examples of exercises by which the material and 
spiritual sides of infantile nature may be developed. 

As we proceed in the examination of each of the choirs, we shall 
see the necessity of an approximate conformity to the directions here 
given ; it will soon be seen, however, that the rules suggested in my 
sketches are never arbitrarily laid down, and that there exist definite 
laws for determining all the arrangements of the Combined Order. 

I have likewise avoided everything arbitrary in regard to the devel¬ 
opment in the child of any particular class of sentiments or opinions. 
A moralist would propose that the child should be reared with a love 
for truth, and a contempt for riches : a political economist would re¬ 
commend that it should be inspired with a love of commerce, and, as a 
consequence, of fraud and falsehood, which are inseparable from it. I 
shall not run the risk of involving myself in such contradictions ; to 
determine the true ends to be attained, I shall have a sure guide, 
which is Attraction, studied analytically and synthetically. 

Whither does it lead us ? 

1st. To Material Wealth. 2d. To Groups . 3d. To Series. K To 
Unity. 

The methods of education should be planned with a reference to 
these primary attractions. 

Our civilized systems would first of all train the child to virtue ; 
but according to the primary focus of attraction, we must first of all 
train him to the* attainment of compound wealth, that is: 

To dexterity and health, which are the source of internal wealth. 

To productive Industry, which is the source of external wealth. 

But what relation is there between Health and the training of our 
schools ? 

In them the child is shut up, often chilled with cold, to plod over 
abstruse subjects in which it feels no interest. The mind is dulled, 
while the growth of the body is injured. Our systems of education 
are then contrary to Nature, for they are opposed to the primordial 
impulses of Attraction, which tends to compound wealth, that is, to 


130 


UNITY OF EDUCATION. 


health or internal Riches, and to Industry, the source of external 
Riches. 

Such are the two aims which the education of the Combined Order 
has in view. It attracts the child, even at four years of age, to en¬ 
gage in many branches of industry; to develop the different parts of 
the'body methodically; to make him dexterous in various functions, 
and by such a variety of exercises to obtain the two guarantees of 
wealth, which are integral health and industrial skill j at four and a 
half years of age, the child should have attained these results. 

We will now examine the means by which they are to be secured. 


CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH. 

THE THREE ORDERS OF INFANCY. 

In the phase of earhp Infancy we include all children under the age of 
four and a-half years. If a child should reach the age of five without 
fulfilling the conditions necessary for admission to the class of Cherubs, 
it would be considered an idiot, or at least as of inferior capacity. 
It would be ranked among the accessory or complimentary choirs, 
which are made up of children that display the least activity of mind 
and body. 

Infancy is divided into three classes, as follows : 

1. Nurslings of ages between 0 and 18 months. 

2. Weanlings u 11 18 and 36 “ 

K 3. Infancies “ « 36 and 54 « 

This last age begins to take part in industry and to frequent the 
gardens and workshops. In them may also be found a few children 
of ages varying between thirty and thirty-three months, but they are 
not considered as regular pupils; I will therefore give to the Orders 
1 and 2, the name of Sub-choir, while the Infancies constitute a regu¬ 
lar choir. They form the transition, marked K, to active industrial life. 

Each of these orders of Infancy are to be sub-divided into three 
categories, having three separate nurseries, halls and systems of in¬ 
struction ; for example, the Infan tiles may be classed by differences of 
age as follows : 

1. Sub-order of ages between 36 and 41 months = 5 months. 

2 « u « « << 4i a 47 « u 

3 u u u « u 47 u 54 « _ y u 

If the architect and the founders of the experimental Association 
should neglect to take all these gradations into account, and graduate 
the dimensions of their apartments accordingly, the Seristeries would 
be ill-arranged and unsuitable for their purposes; Attraction conse¬ 
quently could not be developed, and it would be necessary to resort 
to that method of government employed by the Algerines and- the Phi- 


132 


ORDERS OF INFANCY. 


losopliers, namely, Constraint. A fair trial of Association can only be 
made by a careful estimate of all the material and passional grada¬ 
tions which nature establishes. Let us then study them as manifested 
in childhood, at which period they are more easy of analysis than in 
adult age. 

In addition to this classification of ages, we shall have to indicate 
a classification of faculties, of which we shall speak in the next chap¬ 
ter. Let us first establish a proper sub-division of the three orders of 
Infantiles, Weanlings and Nurslings, that we may foresee and prevent 
the errors liable to be committed in the constriction of their Serister- 
ies. Association would be a failure, if errors are committed either in 
the material or passional education of the young. 

On the contrary, the associative mechanism will operate without 
hindrance, and difficulties will be easily overcome, if we organize prop¬ 
erly every thing relating to the industrial relations of childhood. For 
these relations will have the most important influence on industrial At¬ 
traction ; and in this respect the influence of the sexes will be in 
inverse ratio to the physical strength of each ; that is, 

The male sex, which is physically the strongest, exerts the least 
influence in industrial Attraction. In this respect, children occupy the 
first rank, women the second, and men the third. 

I assign the third rank of influence to men, because Attraction 
should, in direct contrast to Compulsion, proceed from the weaker to the 
stronger. That state of things which shall give rise to industrial Attrac¬ 
tion, will allure children more strongly than fathers and mothers, and 
women with more power than men; so that in the Combined Order, 
it will be the children who will give the chief impulse to labor, and 
after them, the women will allure the men to the exercise of industry. 

It is evident from these considerations how important it will be, in 
the first Association, to bestow the greatest possible attention to or¬ 
ganizing the industry of the children, the proper arrangement of their 
Seristeries, and a proper choice as regards numbers and ages. 

If the requirements of Attraction and of progressive graduation are 
duly observed, we shall see in the very first Association a child four 
years old, left to himself, more prudent and more expert at his voca¬ 
tion. than the generality of adults at the age of thirty or forty in the 
Civilized Order. In the Combined Order, a child of four years, were 
he the son of a millionaire, would know how to make his living in sev¬ 
eral callings, to exercise every organ in due measure, and secure per- 


OliDEES OF INFANCY. 


133 


feet health and vigor, with the full development of the physical and 
mental powers ; and this, moreover, with the subordination of every 
act and deed to the requirements of the collective interest. 

How far are our present systems of education from securing such a 
result! A youth of fifteen, reared under them, would not have ac¬ 
quired that relative perfection of faculties to be found in a child of 
four years, reared in the Combined Order. 

I lay especial stress on these features of Association in order to 
interest the reader in the method which I am about to unfold, and 
which, as regards Education, will realize all those advantages, on some 
of which men have speculated, but which they have not been able to 
attain, and have formed nothing better than legions of little vandals , 
which are ever on the alert for an opportunity to destroy instead ot 
producing, and which, when adults, will become full grown vandals , 
spoliating, pillaging, sacking and massacreing to promote some commer¬ 
cial interests, or to secure the triumph of some political abstractions. 

Such are the fruits of a social Order in which Education tends 
only to stifle Attraction, and thwart nature and the development of 
individual character. I am going to show how the opposite result may 
be achieved ; how Attraction may be consulted and taken as a guide. 
If this power has been wisely distributed by God to all his creatures, 
it must draw the child to productive industry, which is the source of 
wealth, and is the first demand of Attraction, the first focus to which 
it tends. But in the solution of this problem, and in explaining the 
art of attracting a child without compulsion to industry, we must rely 
on means very different from those adopted by our moral and politi¬ 
cal sciences, which, when they do not form characters like a Nero or 
a Tiberius, form fashionable idlers. Among the means which I shall 
explain in the following chapters, I will indicate the principal one, 
namely, natural and progressive Emulation between children, which is 
unknown in Civilization ; it is the result qf the industrial and other 
material arrangements of Association, and can not therefore exist in 
the present Order. 

The principal incentive to this emulation will be the influence of 
the older children on those a little younger; a child admires only 
what is within its capacity to attain ; an Infantile of the age of three 
or four will admire the Choir next above it (the cherubs from four 
and a half to six and a half), and will look upon the children compos¬ 
ing it, wearing their little uniforms and taking part in the manoeuvres 

17 


134 


ORDERS OF INFANCY. 


of the grand parade, as important personages. This spectacle will be 
for the young child what the trophies of Miltiades were for Thernis- 
tocles, whose sleep they disturbed. 

In the hope of reaching the rank of cherubs, it will perform a 
hundred industrial exploits, which it would avoid, if ordered by the 
father or the teacher. Advice will have no weight w T itb it; the un¬ 
natural discipline and artificial teachings of our schools tend only to 
bewilder the child, and disgust it with study ; it needs an enthusiasm 
which our methods can not excite in it, and which nothing can call 
out but a vision of the trophies of the Choirs of older children. 

For the want of such incentives, other motives are presented to the 
child, such as duty to parents, respect for superiors, and other moral 
precepts. The child in Civilization lacks the only incentive that can 
allure it to useful labor, and that is the spectacle of the Choirs or Or¬ 
ders a little superior to it in age, which are already skilled in indus¬ 
try. They are the only models which delight the child. 

While education in the present Order can hardly be undertaken 
before the age of five years, in the Combined Order the child at the 
age of four and a half years will already have passed the first stage 
of his education ; he will possess physical dexterity, take part in sev¬ 
eral useful avocations, earn more than he spends, form his body to 
health and vigor, and his mind to social unity and the practice of 
truth. How far superior are such results to those which our vain 
theories propose 1 


CHAPTER NINETEENTH. 


MATERIAL MEANS OF ATTRACTING EARLY CHILDHOOD 
TO INDUSTRY. 

It would seem more methodical to treat first of the two youngest 
orders of Infancy, the Nurslings and Weanlings; but a variety of 
considerations induce me to commence with the oldest of the orders, 
those between three and four and a half, who are entering upon their 
industrial education. 

We are to determine how the sentiment of industrial honor and 
emulation is to be awakened in them ; a sentiment which is so foreign 
to the children of Civilization, who have a sense of honor only for sub¬ 
versive ends. They emulate each other only in doing mischief; and he 
is highest, and most respected by the rest, who does the most. Asso¬ 
ciation, on the contrary, inspires the child at an early age with incli¬ 
nations quite the opposite of this, with a desire for distinction in sev¬ 
eral kinds of industry. 

It is between the ages of two and a half and three years, that the 
question of natural vocations and talents begins to be solved ; in every 
child, at the age of three years, twenty or thirty, I repeat, manifest 
themselves, while in the civilized state it is with difficulty that a single 
one is discovered and called out in a youth of twenty. 

The Combined Order possesses various means of developing in the 
child the inclination fo these industrial vocations; I will point out 
seventeen. 

MATERIAL MEANS FOR DEVELOPING NATURAL APTITUDES FOR 
VOCATIONS. 

1. The elegance of little workshops, with tools adapted to the dif¬ 
ferent ages of children. 

2. The charm of graduated ornaments, of little uniforms, and 
badges of distinction. 


136 


MATERIAL INCENTIVES 


3. The privilege of handling little tools and of appearing at the 
industrial parades ; they exercise a great influence on children. 

4. The advantage of choosing in each branch of industry the de¬ 
tail which the child feels capable of performing. 

5. The gaiety natural to groups of children when they work as an 
amusement. 

6. The pride of having performed some trifle which appears of 
high importance in the eyes of the child. 

7. Mimicry or the imitative propensity which is so strong in chil¬ 
dren, and acquires a ten-fold energy w T hen the child is stimulated by 
the achievements of those a little older than itself. 

SPIRITUAL MEANS OP DEVELOPING VOCATIONS. 

8. The absence of parental flattery, inadmissable in the education 
of the Combined Order, -where the child is judged and admonished by 
his equals. 

9. The aspiring impulse , or inclination of children to follow the 
example of companions a little older than themselves. 

10. The pleasure arising from short and gay sessions, with rivalry 
and frequent variations. 

11. The emulation existing between contiguous choirs and sub¬ 
choirs, and between the groups of a choir, increased by the example 
of those who have already obtained admission to a higher order. 

12. The admiration and enthusiasm for the prodigies performed by 
older orders, according to the law of defence for the more advanced. 

13. The full liberty of choice as to the kind of occupation, and its 
duration. 

14. Independence from arbitrary control, or dispensation from fol¬ 
lowing any leader who is not selected from choice. 

15. The kindly intervention of the patriarchs or the old in instruc¬ 
tion, who are the favorites of childhood ; children receive instruction 
profitably only so far as they solicit it. 

16. Material harmony, or labors executed in concert, unknown in 
the workshops of the Civilized Order, but observed in those of the 
Combined Order; they will be the delight of children. 

17. Collective impulse, or the charm of following colleagues, when 
animated by songs, gay dresses and ceremonies. 

Pivot. — The influence of the Serial Organization, with its accords 
and rivalries, and its short periods of occupation — the only system 


^ IN EDUCATION. 137 

which can charm children and inspire in them the docility requisite to 
master industrial studies. 

A fine plume is often alone sufficient in the Civilized Order to 
captivate a peasant, to induce him to enlist and sign away his liberty. 
What then will be the effect of such ornaments in attracting a child to 
amusing occupations, to pleasing cooperation with his fellows ? 

We spoke of Privileges ; we will say a few words in explanation. 
The idea of privilege may seem inconsistent with that entire liberty 
which children will enjoy in the Combined Order, we will, therefore, 
define the sense in which we use it. 

To say that children will be entirely free, is not to assert that dan¬ 
gerous liberties will be granted to them. It would be folly to allow a 
child of seven years of age to handle fire-arms, or one of five to han¬ 
dle a hatchet The liberty granted to children will consist in choos¬ 
ing any function and any pleasure which is without danger to them, and 
does not interfere with the usages of another choir, or body of chil¬ 
dren. If a young child were to take a fancy to tear up the flowers 
cultivated by an older group, it would be a trespass, and its liberty 
must be restricted. 

The various orders of children, therefore, should have special privi¬ 
leges, graduated according to their ages. The sixth order of the young, 
who are just entering on the age of puberty, may be allowed certain 
studies which can not be allowed to those who are below this age. 
The fifth order, the Gymnasians, of ages between twelve and fifteen 
and a half years, will enjoy the privilege of hunting with fire-arms, a 
favor which could not be prudently granted to the Lyceans, whose 
ages vary from nine to twelve years. These latter are allowed the 
use of ponies, and to appear in companies on parade. But this privi¬ 
lege could not be safely granted to (he order aged from six and 
a half to nine years. This class is too weak to manage a horse, but 
it is allowed the use of little hatchets and other utensils, which are 
forbidden to the class below, whose ages vary between four and a 
half and six and a half years. These latter are allowed the use of 
knives, chisels, planes and saws ; to drive little wagons drawn by dogs, 
and eDgage in a multitude of functions which excite the admiration of 
the next younger age, but are forbidden to them, though allowed func¬ 
tions and utensils somewhat similar. Thus the advanced Infantiles 
are allowed the use of small saws to cut little sticks and matches, so 
as to discipline and accustom them early to the use of tools. 


138 


MATERIAL INCENTIVES 


Desire for admission to these privileges is a great incentive for 
children who are always eager to rise from order to order, and from 
grade to grade, and to engage in things beyond their years, when not 
restrained by severe examinations and test-performances; the choice of 
branches in which to be examined is left to the pupil, as it is indiffer¬ 
ent as to the industrial group he enters ; he is only to give proof of 
his capacity in a certain number of groups, which, by the very fact of 
their accepting him, certify as to the utility of his becoming a member 
of them. 

These trials of capacity are practically tested, and no favoritism 
can influence the decisions, since a skillful performance of these func¬ 
tions, which are made a test, will be requisite. The groups and series, 
working from emulation much more than from interest, admit to their 
ranks no applicant who does not possess the necessary capacity to co¬ 
operate with them efficiently, and sustain with honor the ambitious 
aspirations of the group in its contest with those of neighboring asso¬ 
ciations. 

The choirs of children, even the youngest, which are the Infancies, 
are in open rivalry with similar choirs of the neighboring Phalanxes. 
Groups of the same age from several Associations, are frequently 
brought together to contend in the manoeuvres of the parade, in pro¬ 
cessions, in operatic performances, and in the little workshops. 

Owing to this incentive, even the youngest choirs are filled with 
pride and emulation, and would not admit to their number an awk¬ 
ward and incapable member; such an one would be remanded, month 
after month from one examination to another, so long as he would be 
likely to hazard, by his want of skill, the reputation of his choir or 
group. Children are very severe judges in such matters; and the re¬ 
buff is very keenly felt by those that have already passed the age of 
admission to a higher class. After six months’ delay and repeated 
trials of capacity, they are, if still incapable, dropped from the regular 
line of advance, and entered among the “Irregulars” or order of semi¬ 
character. 

Our special theme in this chapter is the education of the first or¬ 
der of childhood, the choir of Infantiles ; but as there is a strict con¬ 
nection between all departments of the harmonian education, to get an 
adequate view of the subject, it will be requisite to consider the mech¬ 
anism of the older orders, of which that of the Infantiles is an 
imitation. 


IN EDUCATION. 


139 


Each of the choirs of children will find occupations adapted to its 
strength and capacity ; the Deity has provided them for every age. 
Take for example, cartage ; the groups of Cherubs which cultivate and 
gather the smaller vegetables, will carry them to the kitchens in little 
carts drawn by dogs ; the groups of Seraphs will drive carts of a lit¬ 
tle larger size drawn by asses, and capable of carrying heavier objects; 
the groups of Lyceans will drive carts drawn by ponies; the groups 
of Gymnasians, those drawn by horses of the middle size ; and the 
Juveniles will drive large carts and large horses. Care will be taken 
to establish this graduated order in all employments and in all the 
workshops, in order to exercise each child according to its capacity. 
There will be a similar scale of industrial occupations for the female 
groups. 

As children are very prompt to follow the impulses of nature, and 
not being preoccupied by any considerations of pecuniary interest, they 
will be the first to organize in the experimental Association their five 
orders. The first, that of Infan tiles, aged from three to four and a half, 
which we are now to consider, will be most difficult to form, because 
it can act only as an echo of the other five. These groups will afford 
a singular instance of children furnishing their parents with models of 
social harmony ; for these children, within the first month, will organ¬ 
ize the rivalries of the series, which the parents will have hardly 
formed at the end of three months. 

The industry of the Infantile choir will be the initiation to the sys¬ 
tem of Harmonian education, since it is at the age of from' three to 
four and a half years that the development of aptitudes for the various 
industrial avocations must take place. 

To call out these aptitudes in the child, full liberty is allowed him 
to run about the workshops as soon as he can walk and go alone, at 
the age of two or two and a half years, or even before, under the over¬ 
sight, however, of persons appointed to watch and guide the children. 

When there is no attendant at hand, the child, when a group dis¬ 
perses, may be accompanied by a member who goes with it to another 
industrial group in which the child wishes to take part. Every one, 
in case of need, will fill the place of guide to the child. 

We may then, at the age of two or two and a half years, or as soon 
as the child is able to run alone, leave it to its attractions ; for these 
will always impel it to those quarters of the edifice, the gardens and 
workshops, where there are parties of children annexed to groups of 


140 MATERIAL INCENTIVES 

an older age, provided with little instruments of labor, and where a 
patriarch or some elderly person, present at the sitting, will take plea¬ 
sure in instructing them. 

We will here give two classifications of the first infant order — the 
Infancies ; one according to age, and the other according to industrial 
skill. Classing them by ages, we divide them into 
Older; 

Middle ; and 
Younger Infantiles. 

But talent or skill does not always correspond to the advance in 
age, and the Infantiles, considered from this point of view, arc to be 
divided, like all other industrial bodies, into three grades of proficients 
in each branch of labor; namely, into 
Novices; 

Graduates; 

Licentiates. 

So that one of the older Infantiles may be 

A Licentiate in the match-making group ; a Graduate in the group 
of shellers ; and a Novice in the group of rnignonnettes, with orna¬ 
ments indicative of his position in these different grades. 

There will be a certain ceremony and display in the distribution 
of these grades, which will take place periodically each month and 
each week. After the grand parade, a signal will give note of an ex¬ 
amination for promotions. Then the whole troop, with its Band, will 
advance towards the canopies, under which sit the two choirs of patri¬ 
archs, holding the ornaments to be distributed. The little drums beat 
the signal, and the heralds of the Infantile groups proclaim : 

By order of the most honorable choir of Infantiles of Gnidos — 

Hyles, aged thirty-five months, is promoted to the order of Infan¬ 
tiles, allowed to wear the decorations of its younger groups, and to 
share in the privileges of this noble body, his skill permitting us to 
anticipate the time of his admission to our order by a month. 

Then the leader of the choir of Infantiles conducts Hyles before 
one of the patriarchs, who bestows upon him the decorations of his 
new dignity. Other children are brought before the patriarchs as soon 
as the heralds have announced their merit, and the Band greets each 
successful candidate with a brief salvo. 

After promotion, according to age comes that according to talent. 
The herald proclaims : 


IN EDUCATION. 


141 


By order, etc., Zelia, of the younger groups of Infancies, is pro¬ 
moted to such or such a grade. Here her title is announced, as also the 
list of her merits ; then it is added : Zelia is promoted to the rank of 
Graduate in the group of mignonnettes. A young officer of the group 
conducts her to the patriarch, from whom she receives the insignia or 
decorations belonging to her new function ; and thus with other In- 
fantiles who rise in grade after passing an examination of talent and 
capacity before a jury of their equals. 

This second classification, according to talent, applies as well to 
groups of persons thirty years of age, as to those composed of children 
three years old ; it exerts a powerful influence upon children of the 
younger classes, especially when they are stimulated by the expecta¬ 
tion of decorations and industrial distinctions. In consequence of these 
two-fold honors, the distinction of the three grades excites much more 
emulation in the child than it can call forth in an adult, and there¬ 
fore it is of importance to allude to it among the first details of the 
education of the young. 

We shall devote to the subject of emulation among children two 
special chapters, and show that if this sentiment is successfully aroused 
in the youngest of the youthful orders, it will necessarily spring up 
among all the others. Here, as in horticulture, the greatest care must 
be bestowed on the first developments of the shoot; the tree may be 
left to itself as soon as it has taken sufficient root. 

Let us then study the art of attracting to industry the two choirs 
of Infantiles and Weanlings 5 an art in view of which the entire 
system of early education in regard to the three youngest orders 
should be planned. The whole system of primary instruction would 
be vitiated throughout if we should fail to discover the art of alluring 
early childhood to productive labor ; for otherwise children would con¬ 
tract habits of idleness, as is the case in the Civilized Order. Let us 
analize with care the method which is to secure the children of Asso¬ 
ciation against this defect, and to form in them from infancy a love 
of useful industry. 


17 




CHAPTER TWENTIETH. 

SPIRITUAL INCENTIVES TO INDUSTRY ADAPTED TO 

INFANCY. 

In the opening of the last chapter, I gave a table of nine spiritual 
incentives to Industry. I will enter into some details in regard to two 
only ; first, I will speak of the seventh, Mimicry or the Imitative pro¬ 
pensity, which is the transition to all spiritual incentives. 

This propensity is common to all children; they wish to imitate 
what they see done by those older than themselves. It is upon this 
propensity, which I have termed the Aspiring Impulse , or the desire to 
follow those next advanced in age, that nearly the entire system of 
attractive education of the infantile order is to rest. 

This propensity is now developed in children as soon as they wit¬ 
ness manoeuvres that display harmony of action ; such as 
Military parades; 

Processions on festival occasions; 

Groups of dancers in the ballet. 

Let a hundred young children, selected at random, witness these vari¬ 
ous performances, and they will be eager to imitate them. For want 
of guns, each one will get a stick ; for a flag, they will fasten a hand¬ 
kerchief to a pole. But if they are supplied with little guns and little 
flags, we shall see them transported with delight and listening with 
respectful docility to instructions in regard to their evolutions, which 
an older child might be pleased to give them. Their attention would 
be further increased if they could also have a proper uniform and 
equipage ; if they were allowed little soldier’s caps for the drill, and 
uniforms for procession. 

The children will always find in the Seristeries for Education such 
toys adapted to the wants of different ages. At first they will get only 
wooden guns ; then, older, they will have little ones of iron ; then, in 
the third degree, those of a larger size. This progressive method will 
be one of the great incentives to emulation among them. 


SPIRITUAL INCENTIVES IN EDUCATION. 


143 

The young children will at times be assembled for practice in ma¬ 
noeuvring. There will be, in the gardens as well as in 'the edifice, 
certain points fitted up for their use; and there all the toys and play¬ 
things which Civilization creates, but without advantage to education, 
will be turned to account. The young child will there find little wag¬ 
ons and wooden horses; but he must know how to harness his 
wooden horse before he will be allowed a little wagon, drawn by a 
dog to work in the vegetable gardens. Progression will be observed 
in these matters as in everything else, and the child will handle noth¬ 
ing which does not aid in his industrial education. 

The supply of costumes and toys, necessary to infant education, 
should be of three grades at least, and better of five, so that the chil¬ 
dren may be always taught in divisions and classes, and become early 
habituated to harmony and dexterity. In the Civilized Order, the child 
draws a little wagon awkwardly about all day alone, which will be 
broken by evening. In the Seristeries of the infant order, the use of 
such playthings .will only be allowed when the child has proved itself 
capable of employing them. 

The furnishing of such means of education, which would be an 
enormous and useless expense for a single family, is for the Harmoni- 
ans the sowing of a precious seed ; they find in them the inestimable 
benefit of alluring the child to industry, and of inspiring it at thirty 
months old with a passion for a variety of labors, in which it will 
become in a brief period sufficiently expert to stand at least three ex¬ 
aminations, and secure admission to the class of Infantiles ; the latter 
at three years old are already skillful workers, paying at least their 
support. No advantage can be derived from these stores of infant 
playthings but by uniting a large number of weanlings, and dividing 
them into three classes according to age and talent; only the third of 
these classes, whose average age is thirty-five months, and the second, 
whose age is thirty months, are admitted to industrial exercises. 

How can such a system of collective education be tried in Civili¬ 
zation, in which the proper number of children, and the proper grad¬ 
uation of ages can not be combined, and in which no regular gradua¬ 
tion of apartments, costumes and toys is to be found. 

It is only with large numbers, distributed into companies, divisions 
and subdivisions, that emulation can be aroused, and the incentive of 
graduated privileges, such as decorations and the use of little instru¬ 
ments of industry, be jorought to bear. 


144 


SPIRITUAL INCENTIVES IN EDUCATION. 


Their influence is such, that from the time the child has finished 
its third month in the Seristery of the Infancies, its education will 
proceed spontaneously to its completion, simply through its desire to 
advance from stage to stage. Rivalries and pride in the success of its 
groups, will induce it to become acquainted with various details of in¬ 
dustry ; and preceptors will have nothing more to do than to meet 
the demand for instruction. The simple desire to advance from the 
class of applicants to that of novices, and thence to that of graduates, 
will suffice to inspire the child with the highest ambition in its works 
and studies. It will require less trouble to enkindle its emulation 
than to moderate its impatience, or to soothe its chagrin at some error 
which it will be eager to remedy. 

One great advantage of the .combined education of Association is 
to neutralize the influence of parents, who flatter the child, defer to 
its fancies, or seek to communicate to it their tastes, — a very frequent 
cause in Civilization of misdirection and perversion. “ You wish, then,” 
it will be said, “to take the child away from its natural teacher, who 
is the father ? ” I have no wish in the matter; I am no imitator of 
the sophists, who laydown their foolish caprices for laws of education 5 
who would, for example, plunge a child in winter into cold water in 
imitation of some usages of antiquity. I seek simply to determine the 
aims of attraction. Now attraction seeks to guide the child by the 
ascending impulse, or the deference of inferiors to superiors —a law the 
opposite to that •which prevails in the family group. The real teach¬ 
ers of the child are the choirs of children, older than itself by six 
months or a year, who excite its admiration and emulation by their 
privileges, their uniforms and their exploits. 

In the groups which the child frequents, it will be sufficiently crit¬ 
icised by its equals or those a little older. The rebuffs which an 
awkward child receives on seeking admission to a higher order will 
inspire it with an emulation, with an energy, that would never be 
called out by the flatteries or excuses of a father or mother. A differ¬ 
ent rule presides among children ; they neither pay compliments nor 
show mercy; the youngster that has some little skill has no pity for 
bunglers; on the other hand, the child that has been taunted, will 
neither dare cry nor show spite before children older than itself, who 
would laugh at its vexation and send it away. 

After the criticism which the child has received during the day 
from its equals, it will matter little that the parents before retiring to 


SPIRITUAL INCENTIVES IN EDUCATION. 


145 


rest amuse themselves with humoring and flattering it, praising its 
charms, and telling it that its fellows have been too harsh ; such talk 
will produce but little effect; the impression will have been made; 
the child, humbled by the taunts of seven or eight groups, which it 
has frequented during the day, will not be influenced by the assur¬ 
ances of the parents that the companions, who have criticised it, are 
unfeeling and unjust; the parental praises will pass unheeded ; the 
child, returning the next day to the Infantile groups will remember 
only the checks and rebuffs of the day before ; and in the end it will 
correct the father of his propensity to flatter and spoil by its re¬ 
doubled efforts, proving thereby its consciousness of inferiority. 

This art of fascinating and subduing the child by Attractive author¬ 
ity is at present entirely unknown ; it is well worthy the attention of 
those who are interested in the study of the methods of Nature; the 
principal means employed is “ the ascending corporate charm , or the 
charm of associated groups , organized in ascending grades. 


NOTE. 

PASSIONAL SUBORDINATION OF CHILDREN. 

I here collect and bring together the theoretic proofs bearing on 
this thorny problem, and the indications which point to a solution. 

The art of rendering young children of three years docile through 
the attractions of pleasure, and what is more, eager to engage only in 
useful industry — that would truly be a double prodigy, one of the 
magic effects of the Combined Order. 

Let us make the miracle four-fold greater, by inspiring these same 
children with enthusiastic attachment to their superiors, and giving 
them the faculty of bringing a flattering father back to reason, by 
showing themselves wiser than he. 

«But such children would be celestial beings in a human form ! ” 
Yes, truly so, if compared with the young of the Civilized Order, which 
are but a demoniac breed, carrying perversity to its climax, and exhib¬ 
iting the four following marked defects : 

Aversion to all useful industry ; 

Antipathy and disrespect for superiors ; 

Mischievous combinations to destroy and waste ; 

Disposition to overreach and blind parents. 



146 


SPIRITUAL INCENTIVES IN EDUCATION. 


Such is the child of Civilization, such is the' result of our philosophic 
methods of education. 

In education as in every department of the associative system, let 
us bear in mind that if we are wrong at the outset, we shall go further 
and further astray as we 'proceed. Now in education, w T hat is the point 
of departure ? It is the transition period of human life, the early phase 
of infancy comprising the three classes, Nurslings, Weanlings, and 
Infantiles. If we discover the art of applying the principle of Passion¬ 
al Subordination to this first phase, we shall be able afterwards to ap¬ 
ply it to the three other phases. The method will be the same for all. 

Let us enter, then, with care upon this research for a charm that 
will lead to industry, and that can be applied to the child as soon as it 
can go alone. What may be regarded as certain in this matter is, 
that the charm in question can be found only in methods transcending 
those of the Civilized Order , and opposed to them, since the methods 
of this order arrive at the ’opposite result, and inspire the child only 
with inclinations for mischief and destruction. 

Man is the only creature which by natural instinct destroys the 
work of its kind. A child, as such, is not depraved by the passions 
of gain or hatred, and yet it makes use of its liberty only to destroy 
and waste. This single fact is sufficient to prove that there is an in¬ 
verted action in the passional mechanism, and that in rising from the 
savage, or brute condition, to the civilized state, the human race has 
advanced like the crab, in a direction the opposite of its destiny. 

Let us go back to the source of the evil, and determine the radi¬ 
cal defect of our methods. It is this: they are incapable of cre¬ 
ating and applying the principle of natural authority, or the talisman 
of attraction, which fascinates the child, inspires it with passional do¬ 
cility, and allures it by pleasure to industry. 

This natural authority assuredly is not that of fathers and mothers: 
the child makes two slaves of them, which it rules like a tyrant by 
its cries. The nurse gains its affection only so far as she yields to 
all its whims. So it is with the grand parents, another couple of 
slaves, who are its flatterers, and exercise no controling authority, 
directing it to industry. 

The insubordination of the child presents the same problem as that 
of the zebra, an animal which seems more rebellious than all others, 
but which is, under proper conditions, the most docile of the equine 
species. In the Combined Order, it will be much tamer than the ass. 


SPIRITUAL INCENTIVES IN EDUCATION. 


147 


ft will become so docile as to be used for the petty cavalry service 
of the groups of Lyceans (from nine to twelve years of age). But to 
render it thus docile, it must be fascinated by some talisman of At¬ 
traction, which our usages can create, neither for the animal nor the 
child. If you can bring that compound charm, which gives rise at 
once to enthusiasm and affection, to bear upon both, you will see the 
lion lie down at the feet of Androcles, and the child as docile to the 
lessons of industry, as was Hercules holding the distaff of Omphale. 

Who are more blustering than those bullies that can hardly hold 
a conversation without boasting in a menacing way of their exploits ? 
Yet these braggadocios are the mildest and most cautious of men in the 
presence of skillful fencers. Then all their boastings cease; their tone 
is moderate ; they no longer imagine they can tei-rify the whole world ; 
they recognize all the bystanders as equals and peers. 

In such cases we see that characters the most ungovernable appa¬ 
rently become the most tractable when they find their natural counter¬ 
poise, an influence w T hich fascinates them and imposes upon them the 
sway of attraction. I have already remarked that this magic and 
quite unknown power which is to charm the disobedient child, is 
nought but its own predilection, its enthusiasm for the choirs and sub¬ 
choirs composed of children a little older than itself—from six months 
to one or two years. They are the object of its admiration, the class 
with which it aspires to associate, and whose caprices, examples and 
impulses, it subserviently and eagerly follows. They are its adopted 
masters; and here we find the natural or attractive educator, in search 
of whom the brains of philosophers have been vainly racked. 

Civilization, instead of affording the child this incentive of emula¬ 
tion, surrounds it with influences that deprave it, as every neighbor¬ 
hood harbors a crowd of impudent and vulgar boys, to whose society 
it is irresistibly attracted. They incite it only to mischief, and to play 
games dangerous to life and limb ; they encourage it in disobedience, 
in vulgarity- of language and manners, and in practicing deception 
upon parents and teachers. Is it not natural, then, that Civilization, 
which is the source of all manner of evils, should pervert and trans¬ 
form into a social scourge, that very instrumentality which, in Asso¬ 
ciation, could direct children from infancy in the paths of usefulness ? 

In our higher seminaries we see this pernicious influence exerted 
by the more advanced upon lower classes. The freshman respects 
those of the class next above his own, and reveres those of a still 


148 


SPIRITUAL INCENTIVES IN EDUCATION. 


higher grade. He accepts their decisions as oracles, and thinks it an 
honor to share in their mischievous plots, while he makes sport of 
the precepts and commands of the heads of the institution, and takes 
pleasure in disregarding them. 

Children will pursue a course directly the reverse in the Combined 
Order, in which the choirs and sub-choirs of both sexes, composed of 
as many as forty children, and the graduated scale of honors and dis¬ 
tinctions, will afford incentives to every kind and variety of industry, 
and for every age. 

As things now are, if children turn out mischievous or vicious, the 
fault lies with the Civilized Order, which is organized on a system en¬ 
tirely hostile to natural education. God has formed natural characters 
to suit the organization of the Combined Order; hence it is that chil¬ 
dren which are beings in most intimate sympathy with Nature, and 
least imbued with sophistical prejudices, are the first to revolt against 
an anti-natural order; and make use of their liberty, only to do 
mischief. 

The end of education, therefore, should be to create for children 
an industrial charm sufficient to subdue and fascinate them. The instru¬ 
mentality of fascination is so essential in the system of Nature, that it 
provides even for subversive charms, like that which the serpent em¬ 
ploys to stupefy the bird before devouring it. 

The treacherous system of Civilization is thickly strewn with such 
subversive charms which allure men at every period of life into all 
manner of snares : the old man is beset with inheritance hunters, and 
the young with the seductions of other intriguers. The Civilized Order 
affords to. every age enticements to evil ; whence it follows that the 
Combined Order (according to the law of counter-movement) will lav¬ 
ishly provide for every age attractions to good ; especially will it rich¬ 
ly provide industrial charms for infancy, which, at that age, open the 
only path to wisdom. The discovery of this instrumentality was the 
only problem to be solved as regards education; and this at last finds 
its solution in the c harm produced by choirs of the different ages, or¬ 
ganized in ascending grades , or in the theory of the Passional Series, 
contrasted, rivalized, and interlinked. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST. 

COROLLARIES IN REGARD TO THE EDUCATION OF EARLY 

INFANCY. 

We have not yet touched upon the primary processes of the asso¬ 
ciative system of Education as applied to children under fifteen months ; 
and critics will already be disposed to find fault with the methods of 
training children recommended for the two succeeding ages. 

I must warn impartial readers, then, that the system of associative 
education can not be judged by an exposition of parts of the theory ; 
it is a vast organization, in which each result attained, springs from 
the action of the whole, and the reciprocal cooperation of all the parts. 
No correct judgment can be rendered upon it before the exposition 
of the four phases shall have been read. 

We are investigating a system of education adapted to the wants 
and requirements of all mankind — the savage, patriarchal, barbarian 
and civilized races. I shall treat of the subject in briefer compass than 
theorists generally employ to develop methods applicable to but a small 
portion of the Civilizees. The theory of Rousseau, for example, is 
adapted only to families with an income of ten thousand a year—to 
less than a thousandth part of the human race. These families, how¬ 
ever, can make no practical use of his reveries, which were not fol¬ 
lowed even by himself. 

One objection which will be raised is that I attribute to children 
of three years of age an intelligence and dexterity, or powers of mind 
and body, which could hardly be expected in a child of six years. It 
will be refuted, a few pages on, in a chapter on the compound preco¬ 
city of children in the Combined Order. 

Many other objections, and on no better grounds, will also be urged; 
for example, that the petty labors of such young children are of no 
value. A great expense is to be incurred, it will be said, in titling up 
little workshops, and procuring little tools, implements and uniforms 
adapted to the different ages; but what profit is to result from it ? 


150 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


These children will have split out and put up a few bundles of matches 
and fagots; but what an insignificant achievement! Two adults in an 
hour would do more of this kind of work than twenty children. 

This reasoning is entirely fallacious; these petty labors of children 
produce in the gross an enormous return, which proceeds from four 
sources. 

1. A positive material gain ; for children, performing tasks which 
in Civilization are executed by grown persons, do it much better, and 
with more rapidity. Six children of the younger choirs, seated at an 
octagonal table constructed for the purpose, will shell a basket of peas 
in less time than six of our servants, and the sorting of them will 
be much better done. The kitchens, the workshops, the gardens, the 
orchards, and the stables, will abound in these petty labors which the 
younger choirs will perform with celerity, and thus at? four years of 
age, a child will often be able in such matters to do a day’s work of 
an adult. 

3. A positive spiritual gain ; children will be the charm of an As¬ 
sociation by their dexterity, their emulation, their early participation 
in industry, in the opera, and in ceremonies, and their general regard 
for good manners, which always accompany industrious habits ; this 
industrial harmony among the children will be a powerful incentive to 
harmony among the parents: and thus, the children will achieve in so¬ 
cial polity, what multitudes of philosophers and legislators have in vain 
essayed. 

3. A negative internal advantage ; if industrial habits are formed 
at the age of three or four years, that precious time will be saved 
which a youth in the Civilized Order devotes to his apprenticeship be¬ 
tween the ages of fifteen and twenty years, and often without success, 
for the workmen of the present order are for the most part bunglers ; 
the child in the Combined Order, becoming dexterous at a very 
early age, will be, when nine years old, as expert in his work, as are 
performers in legerdemain. A similar dexterity will appear in all the 
labors of the children of the Combined Order of that age, and in a 
still greater degree in those of adults. 

4. A negative external advantage; by avoiding the waste which 
children in the present Order occasion. I will mention but a single 
case. When three years old, I was one day left alone in the garden 
of an ecclesiastic who was attending vespers; it was in a season of 
the year when the fruit is just formed, and pears, apples and peaches 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


151 


are about the size of hazle-nuts. Arranged in beautiful rows, the gar¬ 
den was full of these trees. I spent half an hour in gathering the 
young fruit, of which I destroyed a very large’quantity. The ground 
was strewn with them. I brought a large number of them in my 
apron to the two domestics, my. own and one that waited on the 
priest. At the sight of my fruit gathering they swore roundly, and 
overwhelmed me with reproaches. 

But the two servants were to blame; they had been enjoying them¬ 
selves over a bottle of wine from the priest’s cellar, and had left me 
alone in the garden. Complaining bitterly, they picked up the de¬ 
stroyed fruit and threw it over the wall. 

Such are children, untrained to industry and to ideas of order; 
their instincts tend to destructiveness, even when their intentions are 
harmless, for I had committed this waste from no malice, but simply 
for amusement. 

This instinct for mischief is a characteristic of all children brought 
up in our incoherent Order. But yesterday I saw a child busy break¬ 
ing all the grafts which had just been set in some hundred small trees 
of a garden ; his next exploit was to try to pull up the stocks; I ar¬ 
rived in time to stop him and call a servant. The children of the 
Combined Order should be seen at work to form an adequate idea of 
the incapacity of children in Civilization. Averse to every kind of use¬ 
ful industry, they never weary when there is any mischief to be done; 
they spare neither time nor trouble ; it would be no small economy to 
prevent the waste which children occasion, and avoid the expense of 
employing persons to restrain their mischievous propensities. 

In these petty labors of the youngest choirs, I have pointed out a 
four-fold advantage to spring from them. I must add a fifth, the pi¬ 
votal one, which is Health and a vigorous growth, the result of 
their industrial occupations, constantly varied, and never excessive. 
The regular development of the body depends upon this variety of ex¬ 
ercises applied to all its parts ; it is by such means that the children 
of the Combined Order at four years of age will be rendered equal 
in vigor to those of six years of age in Civilization, and in intelli¬ 
gence to those of ten. 

As to the labors of the young and the tools and implements they 
will use, let us recall the rule of progressive adaptation. For example, 
in ordering the hoes and spades for an Association, its founders would 
doubtless forget, that in providing these implements for adults, they 


152 


KAKLY EDUCATION. 


would require to be of three sizes, slightly varied, to adapt them to 
the three grades of adult strength, and that the same .rule should be 
followed in providing ’implements for childhood, which in every de¬ 
partment imitates the industry of mature age. The children, then, 
will have little hoes and spades of three grades, adapted to the differ¬ 
ent orders. 

A similar gradation should prevail in all the implements of indus¬ 
try ; it should be in every sense progressive on a compound plan. 
For illustration, let us take some branch of infantile labor, such as the 
shelling of peas, beans, etc. 

It should be performed by two concurrent processes, and there 
would be used for this purpose a table of eight sides, with the surface 
slightly inclined and concave toward the lower edges. 

At the upper sides are seated three children, say four years of age, 
and before them a supply of peas in the pod; as fast as the shelling 
goes on, the inclination of the table causes the peas to roll down to 
the lower sides, where sit three children of the next lower choir, whose 
business it is to sort them. The table is so constructed and placed as 
to render this process easy. 

Suppose three sorts are to be selected for three varieties of culi¬ 
nary preparation. The youngest (thirty months old we will suppose) 
picks out the large ones, which are easy to lay hold of; the second 
child, a little -older (say thirty-two months), selects those of a mid¬ 
dle size; and the eldest child (say thirty-four months) selects the 
smallest, which are the most difficult to choose. If one of these chil¬ 
dren performs its work badly, it will be sent away in disgrace; it 
will not be allowed to take part in the work, and will go complaining 
to a patriarch to be instructed. Those who execute their task w r ell 
will be allowed to make a trial on other vegetables, and in the follow¬ 
ing month can be admitted as novices to the group for sorting vege¬ 
tables. After admission into three such groups, they will be prepared 
to enter the order next above. 

In this distribution of the six workers, there are two concurrent 
processes carried on by competitors of threes ; the order is compound 
and the method regular, though the two Series are restricted to the 
lowest possible number — three in Ihe group above, and three in the 
group below. Here is a principle which should be consulted in prepar¬ 
ing the tools and implements’ of the experimental Association. I shall 
renew this advice when I have shown its utility by other examples. 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


153 


Upon those points more ^than others, I shall be obliged to have re¬ 
course to frequent repetitions, and explain in various ways the means 
of exciting industrial emulation among children. 

There prevail so many prejudices in regard to the natural inclina¬ 
tions or impulses of children, and science is so incapable of discerning 
them, that we need' more than one definition to render them intelligible. 

I have made use of the following locutions at different times : 

Ascending corporate charm ; 

Imitative corporate progression ; 

Imitative passional subordination. 

These various expressions leave a choice to the reader. Some will 
prefer one of these expressions, while others another; it is well to re¬ 
peat under various forms a principle upon which will depend the suc¬ 
cess of the experiment in Association. The organizing of the groups 
and choirs of children should draw after it that of the parents, and 
should be completed some three or four months earlier than that of 
the latter; and therefore this step will be the first to be taken in the 
work of organization. 

The association of the children will be very promptly achieved if 
the founders and directors of the experimental Association are careful 
not to commit errors in the employment of motives and impulses, and 
to make a proper use of the principle of emulation, mutual criticism, 
and authority, which are very improperly employed in the education 
of children in the present order. 

Our methods, bearing on these points, are entirely defective, be¬ 
cause they can neither discover the impulses on which to operate, nor 
organize the children in such choirs or corporations that these im¬ 
pulses can be called forth. They employ, for example, the impulse 
of friendship when that of ambition should be resorted to ; and if they 
choose the right impulse, they never use it in its proper degree. 

To sajL for instance, that the child should be drawn to industry by 
the ascending corporate charm , is not to assert that the charm can be 
exercised directly on a child three years old by the choirs of children 
eight or nine years old. The progressive scale would be violated ; 
the charm would not proceed from the proximate or vicinal choir. 
It is only from the choir next above whose members are between four 
and six that the child of three feels the emulative impulse, and the 
impression of corporate charm. 

The child’s ambitious views never aspire very high; the younger 


154 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


it is, the more limited its aspirations. At three years of age, it will 
not envy the position of children eight or ten years old; the functions 
and distinctions of such children would be no stimulus to it; it can 
be influenced only by the exploits of the next higher choir of 
children, four or five years of age; they are its gods, and chosen 
leaders. 

The charm, then, which is to influence the child, must proceed 
from the vicinal choir; the incentive which will attract it to, and de¬ 
light it with Industry, must issue from the choirs next above in age. 
This is a secret which our subtle analysts of human nature have been 
unable to penetrate. 

In strict truth, we should say that the incentive to emulation as 
adapted to children should be, 

An ascending corporate charm —and in its mode of operation, 

Vicinal , progressive , and four-fold. 

Custom forbids the use of expressions so precise and technical; it 
demands brevity at the expense of completeness. 

To understand the operation of industrial charm on education, it 
will be necessary to study the entire scheme of the associative mechan¬ 
ism, in which all incentives act by graduated, impressions in different 
degrees. To calculate and determine all the branches of the social 
movement is an immense work, and its multitudinous details can only 
be explained successively. Before pronouncing on the truth of these 
details their combined operation as a whole must first be understood. 
I shall close my examination of the three orders of childhood by ex¬ 
hibiting an application of the principles of progressive and vicinal 
charm to the youngest order of children — to the Nurslings. 

The charm should be four-fold, namely, 

Compound internal , created by the emulation of children of both 
sexes, taking part jointly in various branches of industry. 

Compound external , created by the influence of two vicinal or con¬ 
tiguous ages : a superior, leading and admonishing; and an inferior, 
submitting to admonition and guidance. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND. 


PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION OF THE NURSLINGS. 

There is no theme which should more interest parents than this. 
I shall prove to them that, out of the Combined Order, neither the 
wealthy, nor even monarchs can secure to the child that care upon 
which healthy growth depends. 

When Rousseau criticised the prevailing systems of education, he 
began with condemning the employment of hireling nurses ; he desired 
to call mothers back to the tender sentiments of nature; a charming 
philosophic vision! — the reverie of a philosopher, who is ignorant that 
in all general calculations the exceptions amount to an eighth. Now 
this eighth of the mothers who should not nurse their own children, 
is just that opulent class which Rousseau desired to inspire with this 
desire of nursing. 

It would seem, at first glance, that a mother is wanting in her nat¬ 
ural duty, if she does not nurse her own child. Admit this to be true ; 
our conclusion is that Rousseau could convert only one-eighth of all 
mothers, for the majority of them, especially in the poorer or middle 
classes, are very faithful in this respect, and for the reason that they 
have no means of hiring a nurse. 

What advantage do infants derive from the conversion of that small 
number of rich mothers whom Rousseau, it is said, has brought back 
to perform the tender duties of nature ? If there existed courts and 
codes to try offenders for faults committed in the matter of nursing in¬ 
fants, and for the mistakes of which they are the victims, I think that 
nine-tenths of these wealthy women who nurse their own children, 
would be condemned to severe penalties. They can not be considered 
so much nurses as destroyers of the young child, which should be 
prudently cared for. These mothers seek only to create in their young 
countless fancies, which are pernicious to, and which undermine the 
health of the greater part of them. A mother, without occupations 
that interest her strongly, abandons herself to the impulses of maternal 


156 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


tenderness, the excesses of which passion are no less injurious than 
those of any other. Thus rich women very often injure, and even de¬ 
stroy the health of their infant children by developing in them a mul¬ 
titude of pernicious desires and habits. 

It is constantly a matter of astonishment that death carries off the 
only son of a rich family, while it spares the children of the poor in 
the neighborhood, who have often scarcely a bed to lie upon. But 
such children have a guaranty of health in the poverty of the mothers 
who have no time to humor caprices that harm them, still less develop 
in them others which Nature does not inspire. But this is the very 
error of women that are rich and deprived of occupation. 

Let us turn to other errors of Rousseau. He blames the system of 
confining infants with bands, as is so widely practiced ; and in this 
he was doubtless right; but it is not enough to criticise an abuse ; 
we should suggest a remedy for it It is not every child that has a 
rich parent and half a dozen servants to wait upon it. How can the 
peasant woman, for example, who is obliged to go to the fields to la¬ 
bor, provide an attendant to watch her child in the cradle, or keep it 
out of the fire ? How long shall it be before the philosophers can un¬ 
derstand that a true system should not be adapted to a few rich alone 
in society, and that they should suit their ethical systems to classes 
that have neither large incomes, nor servants to W’ait upon them ? 

An Association takes such considerations into account. It aims at 
a system of unitary education, which can be applied on a progressive 
scale to the whole body of children. It consequently divides the class 
of Nurslings into three orders, according to character as well as age, 
as follows : 

The Quiet ; the Restive ; the Refractory. They are distrib¬ 
uted in three contiguous apartments, which are, however, so sepa¬ 
rated that the Refractory can not disturb the Quiet by their cries and 
screams, nor even the Restive. 

Mothers will be too much occupied in the Combined Order with 
their various pursuits to forget them at once, and to be attracted to 
devote their entire time to the youngest child as at present. They 
know that in the combined nurseries, every attention will be bestowed 
upon it; that careful attendants from the Series of nurses who are fit¬ 
ted by nature and attraction for such services, will, by turns, watch 
over the infant children by night and day in the three separate apart¬ 
ments in which they are distributed. 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


157 


The nurses, divided iuto different groups, have a rotation of duties 
to be as strictly performed as Ihe sentinel service of a besieged city; 
and at no hour of the day or night, will the three apartments, devoted 
to the infants, be wanting in attendants ready to anticipate and satisfy 
all their wants. The mother will have no other care in regard to her 
child than to appear at stated hours for the purpose of nursing. When 
this duty is discharged, she is at liberty to engage in the various in¬ 
dustrial groups to which she belongs. She may even absent herself 
for a whole day without harm, as there will be substitute nurses, 
classed according to temperaments, who can always supply the natural 
food of the infant from a temperament similar to that of the mother. 
Such precautions are neither practicable, nor recognized as necessary 
in Civilization ; they constitute one of the manifold advantages to be 
found in the great Associations, organized in Passional Series. 

Civilization, always partial and simplistic in its methods, provides 
no other asylum for the Nursling than the cradle. Association, which 
employs compound methods in all departments, uses alternately the 
cradle and the mat. The mats are suspended breast-high by supports, 
which form compartments in which each child can move about with¬ 
out interfering with others. Silken nettings keep the child in its place 
without depriving it of the power to move freely, to look around, or 
get near the next child, from which, how'ever, the nettings separate it. 

The room is sufficiently warm to allow the child to be clad in a 
shirt, or similar light garment, and thus dispense, as far as possible, 
with swaddling clothes and thick dresses. 

The cradles are rocked by some simple contrivance; twenty could 
thus be kept moving at a time. A single child will perform this ser¬ 
vice, which in Civilization requires twenty 'women. 

The nurseries w’ill be visited every morning by the physicians of 
the Association, who have an interest in preventing sickness among 
them ; for in the Combined Order the group of physicians will be re¬ 
warded in proportion to the collective health, and not for treating indi¬ 
vidual cases. Thus, the more there are sick, the less the pay of the 
group. It being their province to preserve good health in the whole 
Association, and to prevent, rather than treat disease, their dividends, 
or portion of the general product, will be large just in proportion to 
the smallness of the number of sick during the year. They could re¬ 
ceive no pay as individuals without dishonor and a pecuniary loss, as 
Association considers all salaried individual service disgraceful. 


158 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


The nurseries or Seristery of the Nurslings, as we have said, is 
divided into three apartments. There will be a similar distribution 
of the nurses. There will be three groups, which will perform every 
day a regular service in three divisions to each group, 

The nurses of the Quiet children 5 
The nurses of the Restive children ; 

The nurses of the Refractory children. 

As to character, the first class of Nurses is the least patient; the 
second, moderately so ; the third, calm and forbearing. 

The Series of nurses might, with more advantage, be sub-divided 
and increased to the number of five or eight groups. It will in Asso¬ 
ciation enjoy great respect, and exercise a sacerdotal function, because 
its duties are those of charity and religion, as are those which pertain 
to the care of the sick and infirm. 

A mother, had she the wealth and resources of a princess, would 
never think of rearing her child isolatedly in her own apartments. It 
would not receive a quarter of the attention which it would receive in 
the Seristery of the Nurslings; and, with all the expense incurred, it 
would be impossible to bring to its service a body of affectionate and 
intelligent nurses, whose characters correspond to those of the children 
under their care, and who would alternate and relieve each other in 
their duties in the manner we have described. At no expense could 
she procure apartments so suitably warmed and ventilated; so well 
provided with elastic mats, and in which groups of children, classed 
according to age and character, would afford society and amusement 
to each other. In the Combined Order alone will it be possible to ap¬ 
preciate how comparatively destitute is the richest potentate of the 
Civilized Order in those means of education and comfort which the 
former Order will lavish on the poorest of its children. 

At present, everything is so arranged that the young child is the 
torment of the household, which in turn is so organized as to be a 
torment to it. The child from instinct' longs for the arrangements and 
the comforts which it would find in the nurseries of Harmony, and for 
want of which, it distracts parents, servants and neighbors by its cries, 
while injuring its own health. An infant can sometimes disturb and 
annoy a whole household. As I write, I can see a child which for 
two months has been the vexation and torment of five or six persons. 
Three domestics are not enough to satisfy the caprices which the fool¬ 
ish parents have nurtured in it; withopt any apparent cause, it is 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


159 


continually screaming. The nurses engaged for the service of this imp 
lose all patience within a fortnight, and the whole house is disturbed 
on account of a child, which in the Combined Order would not cause 
the least trouble ; in the apartments of the Refractory ,, with groups of 
children like itself, its cries would not affect any other children. Its 
screams would be very easily borne by the nurses of a calm tempera¬ 
ment, when only two hours of attendance are required, with suitable 
means and appliances to amuse such tempers. They are prepared for 
the bawling of such children, the care of which may interest a group 
of nurses who are competing with two other groups in the same Series, 
having similar pretensions to maintain. 

Thus in the Education of Association, things which are repulsive 
and embarrassing to the hirelings of Civilization will become sport for 
the Harmonians, because the arrangements which Nature demands and 
which are adapted to all tastes, can be found only in the Passional 
Series. If it were otherwise, the passions of the child would be an 
exception to that principle of serial order which prevails in all the 
details of a true social system. 

In Education as in any other branch of the Combined Order, we 
must constantly follow that guide to which I have so often alluded, 
namely, the distribution by compound Series * 

If this method did not extend to the youngest as to all other classes, 
if it did not apply to all ages, from infancy to decrepitude, there would 
be no unity in the social theory I am explaining; its laws would be 
violated. 

In the distribution of the three ages of infancy which I gave, I vio¬ 
lated myself one of those laws without its being probably perceived by 
the reader; I divided the three ages of infancy by eighteen months, 
which is a simple division and faulty : 

18 months for the Nurslings, from 0 to 18. 

18 “ 11 the Weanlings, “ 19 to 36. 

18 “ “ the Infantiles, u 37 to 54. 


* At times the simple may be employed; but in the system at large we must 
make our calculations in reference to the compound series, and introduce it as far 
as possible, for the simple is useful only as a complement of the other. In the 
management of children, therefore, as in every branch of Association, we should 
proceed by compound Series, save in those very rare cases in which the simple can 
be adopted, which can never be but under exceptional conditions, and never at all 
as a pivotal process. 



1G0 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


Let us not forget that equality or uniformity in any department of 
the societary organization is pernicious. The principle of social grada¬ 
tion which I have so often announced, is violated by the above distri¬ 
bution. The correct and progressive one would be as follows 
Nurslings, between 0 and 15 months, 15. 

Weanlings, “ 16 and 33 “ 18. 

Infan tiles, “ 34 and 54 “ 21. 

By means of this division, graduated unequally in periods of 15, 

18, and 21 months, the progression becomes compound, there being a. 
gradation in the order of ages as well as in duration of each order. 

It is well to call attention to an error of this kind in order to put 
the reader on his guard against the defect of Simplism , into which he 
will be frequently seduced by present habits of thought. 

I often make imperfect classifications of this kind to avoid compli¬ 
cation ; for example, in indicating the age of the choirs of Lyceans 
and Gymnasians, we may erroneously assign to both sexes the same 
ages: 

To Lyceans from 9 to 12 ; 

“ Gymnasians “ 12 to 15 )£. 

Here I should have assigned a difference of ages for the two sexes, 
as the female sex attains puberty sooner than the male ; its choirs, 
therefore, should be a little younger than those of the male sex, as 
follows: 

Lyceans (girls) from 8% to \\% ; 

Gymnasians “ “ t° 144£. 

In the example first given, the age of but one sex is indicated; it 
is an error of simplism , to which one is led by a desire of brevity. 
We should become involved in a labyrinth of minute calculations, if we 
followed these rules too strictly ; it is sufficient, however, to lay down 
the general principle illustrated by the numerical equality established 
by Nature between the sexes, and which should be observed in the 
distribution of the ages in the formation of each choir. 

As this chapter especially concern the interests of parents, I must, 
in conclusion, call their attention a second time to the greatest scourge 
of wealthy families, to the defects in our present system of rearing" the 
young, which is fatal to. so many, and falls so heavily on the opulent 
class. We constantly see young children, destitute of bread and cloth¬ 
ing, especially in the country, escape the destroyer which cuts off the 
scions of the rich and great. 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


161 


The wealthy, suffering such afflictions, accuse Nature without per¬ 
ceiving that the loss of their children is the result of a system of edu¬ 
cation which is contrary to Nature, and is worse for them than for 
the poor. 

It will be proved that the opulent classes suffer more than the in¬ 
digent from the want of the associative method of education; and 
that in this matter as in many others the wealthy, while imagining they 
keep the lower classes in subjection, become themselves the victims of 
an oppression ill-understood, which reacts upon its authors. 

A distinguished author remarks that from the unhealthy dwellings of 
the wretched issue those contagious diseases which are destined to 
carry off their lords. In the same way, we may say : The destitution 
of the children of the poor renders general those defects of education 
which prove so fatal to the children of the rich. Organize the associ¬ 
ative system ; organize the Seristery with its triple set of apartments 
for the three ages, and the three classes of characters, and a healthful 
and natural training for the children of both rich and poor will be at 
once secured. Would not such a system, with its beneficial results, be 
preferable to that of our isolated households, which entails disease or 
death on so many of the young ? 


CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD. 


SIMILARITIES OF CHARACTER, APPLIED AS CHECKS IN 
THE EDUCATION OF EARLY INFANCY. 

In the preceding chapter, I treated only of the material or physical 
care bestowed upon infants ; it remains to speak of their spiritual or 
mental training; and in this respect the education of the Nurslings is 
to be combined with that of the Weanlings. The latter form a mixed 
class, of which the elder, aged from twenty-seven to thirty-three months, 
are already associated in the little gardens and workshops with the 
Infancies ; while the youngest, aged from sixteen to twenty months 
are still, with few exceptions, subject to the same training as the 
Nurslings. 

In the present state, the child two and a half years old is hardly 
less troublesome than the Nursling, its companion in noise. 

In vain does the moralist extol the. sweet charm of listening night 
and day to the cries of a child; it is not every one who is blessed 
with the ear of a parent. This vexation is one that is to be expected 
from both the younger orders of children. I have seen interesting 
sprouts of this age which parents themselves were obliged to send out 
of the house for awhile to get a few moments, quiet and repose. 

What is the cause of these noisy transports of rage in a child fif¬ 
teen months of age, and sufficiently strong to run alone ? It is annoyed 
and irritated by finding in the isolated household none of those diver¬ 
sions which its instincts demand, but which Nature has provided for it 
in the Combined Order, and which would always be within its reach 
among its mates in the nurseries of an Association. 

Wealthy parents may engage servants at a great expense to sup¬ 
port the screams of their young, and to take care of them ; but would 
it not be much better to prevent this screaming of the child by pro¬ 
viding it with the recreations which Nature intends for it, and which 
would secure it health and pleasure. 

Besides, as I have already observed, it is not every father who has 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


163 


an independent income and can have apartments separate from his 
own, where crying children may be kept under the oversight of hired 
nurses. This advantage of separate apartments exists in every Asso¬ 
ciation, which has a Seristery for the Weanlings, divided into three 
parts, which are assigned to children of ages varying between fifteen 
and thirty-three months, classed like the Nurslings, as follows : 

The Quiet, or Mild ; 

The Restive, or Obstinate ; 

The Refractory, or Rebellious. 

This three-fold distinction of characters should be combined with 
that of ages in order that the Series may be compound and not simple. 

I calculate that those of the third class, the refractory, will, in As¬ 
sociation, be less troublesome and noisy than are those of the mild and 
gentle class in our present household arrangements. What will have 
produced this subduing influence on the temper ? Will the passions of 
little children, as the moralists would have it, be changed ? Certainly 
not; they will have been simply developed harmoniously and without 
excess. Recreation and diversion will have been provided them by 
congenial companionship and by the adoption of a triple Series, that 
is, by classing and grouping them according to the dispositions above 
mentioned, and the three ages, elder, middle and younger. The most 
noisy will soon cease to cry when brought in,contact with a dozen lit¬ 
tle imps as ungovernable as themselves. They will be like those brag¬ 
garts who grow gentle and check their blustering propensities when in 
the presence of their equals. 

What diversions can be provided for these little creatures, now so 
unmanageable ? I can hardly say. The nurses in less than a month, 
organized in competitive groups, will have devised something to amuse 
them, and put an end to their intolerable clamor. I only lay down 
the principle, that refractory children of this age must be brought to¬ 
gether in groups. They will be rendered tractable by the simple charm 
of associating like with like ; and they will impose silence upon each 
other, not by menaces and chastisements, which are impracticable with 
infants, but by that peculiar influence which subdues the most quarrel¬ 
some persons when in the presence of their equals; a result which 
can not be reached by parents, w r hom the child annoys, while torment¬ 
ing itself. 

As things now are, were a turbulent child taken into the company 
of other children given to crying like itself, it could not be subdued ; 


164 : 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


for none of those influences could be brought to bear, which would be 
found in the nurseries of an Association. Brought home, it would re¬ 
new its cries and become all the more violent from a brief enjoyment 
of diversions, the loss of which would be keenly felt. The child needs 
agreeable influences, constantly adapted to its character, and not occa¬ 
sional snatches of enjoyment which can only sharpen its appetite, and 
augment the vexation of its life in the isolated household, in which it 
is without the society of tempers like its own, and is not subject to 
such equable influences as spring from the natural counterpoise of 
characters of three different kinds. Such w.ould be the situation of the 
child in the scientifically organized nurseries of an Association. 

To divert such noisy children and get rid of their troublesome com¬ 
pany, people commit other mistakes. The child is entrusted, for ex¬ 
ample, to the care of a nurse who takes it out to walk ; and while 
her attention is engrossed with some trifle, she neglects the child, which 
is the victim of her carelessness. The daily journals abound with cases 
of this kind.* 

Children just beginning to walk, go out in groups attended by aged 
persons, and the greatest caie is bestowed up.on them. When the 
weather is inclement, and the ground wet or covered with snow, they 
can walk in the winter garden or the galleries that run round the first 
story of the palace. Such a walk will be of itself an exercise of har¬ 
mony, of measured movement ; they will be accompanied by a band 


* I will mention two instances: A nurse, at Paris, takes her charge to the 
Garden of Plants, and as is the custom of her class, who are always frightening 
children, talking of bears and wolves, this nurse threatened to cast the child to the 
bear Martin to be devoured by it. She was holding it on the verge of the pit in 
which the bear was confined : her attention is for a moment diverted, and she lets 
her charge fall. It is immediately seized and devoured by the bear, and the nurse 
in despair drowns herself in the Seine. 

Such is the skill and care of ordinary nurses; the moralist would say that chil¬ 
dren should be entrusted only to the care of parents ; but is not the father of tbe 
loAver classes as careless as nurses among the wealthy ? Take another instance that 
lately occurred : 

A father of the peasant class, unable to stop the crying of his child, tells it, “If 
you keep c^ing, I will put you to bed with the pigs,” and proceeding from threats 
to performance, he shuts it up in good earnest in the pig-stye. AwTiile after going 
to look for the child, he finds nothing but its bones; it had been devoured. 

Are not such calamities occuning every day? May we not justly infer that the 
care of children must not be entrusted to parents alone, and that tbe habits and 
usages of our isolated households are by no means adapted to the instincts, inclina¬ 
tions and wants of infancy. 



EARLY EDUCATION. 


165 


of Infantiles that can beat in concert the little basque drum and the tri¬ 
angle. A Weanling is not admitted among the Infantiles, till he can 
walk in file, keep step, and play on the little drum, triangle, bell 
or castanet. A child thirty-three months old can not be expected to 
keep time in singing, but it may be required to keep step in prome¬ 
nading, and time in playing little musical instruments. 

Mothers will visit the nurseries, and, after having nursed the child, 
will have no further care to bestow upon it, unless they take part with 
the Series of nurses; they will naturally compliment the nurses on the 
neat condition in which the cradles and mattings are kept, on their 
skill in anticipating the little wants and caprices of the child, and on 
the dexterity they exhibit in the performance of functions exercised 
from attraction, and rendered easy by habit. 

Why has Nature created some women who find an amusement in 
the trouole which children give, and who would take charge of a dozen 
with pleasure; while others, unable to endure the care of a single one, 
entrust it to servants ? Morality styles such women bad mothers ; but 
when the care of children shall be managed on a combined plan, it 
will not be necessary that all mothers shall be fond of the care of chil¬ 
dren, of their cries, and the uncleanly offices to be performed in wait¬ 
ing on them. 

I estimate that in an Association of eighteen hundred persons, fifty 
would be amply sufficient to make up a Series of nurses, and to these 
might be added a few young girls: there are some that thus early in 
life manifest an inclination for these cares. The nurses will perform 
by turns their service during the twenty-four hours of the day, like 
sentinels on duty ; and by means of this service, the poorest mother 
can say: “ My child is infinitely better cared for than could be in 
Civilization the son of a monarch.” 

The support of the two extreme ages in Association — the children 
under four and the patriarchs — being considered an office of unitary 
or collective charity, nothing is paid for the care of children. The en¬ 
tire Association bears the expense of supporting the Seristeries of all 
the infant orders. The Series of nurses is paid like the others by a 
dividend out of the general product. 

“ I am well paid,” says a nurse in the Civilized Order, “ but I earn 
my money dearly; I can not endure it; I lose all patience.” Such 
is the language we hear in the households even of the rich, who can 
bear the expense of nurses. What then must it be among the poor, 
18 * 


166 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


who are unable to buy the linen the child needs ? How many infants 
belonging to the destitute classes die of privation and ill-treatment, 
while among the rich, how many mothers kill their children by ex¬ 
cessive tenderness ? The young in Civilization are sacrificed in greater 
numbers than any other class. 

Nature intended that children should be educated collectively, for 
their own good as well as for the comfort of the parents. Notwith¬ 
standing the sacred duties assigned to parents by morality, there is no 
married couple which is not more or less disgusted with the details of 
infant education, with their filthiness, and the repulsive services which 
their weakness demands. It would be sufficient to render all parents 
dissatisfied with Civilization, if there were an Association already or¬ 
ganized, to show them the Seristeries in which the Nurslings and 
Weanlings are reared, with their classification into groups, composed of 
consecutive ages and of contrasted dispositions. 

In these groups the older influence the younger, and draw them on 
to useful exercises, the example being set by the next older order — 
aged from three to four and a half—which have already begun to 
take part in the operations of Association. On witnessing this general 
inclination of children to useful occupations, to combination and con¬ 
cert of action, every parent would exclaim : “This is the true method 
of rearing and instructing the young; the veritable secret of nature in 
the art of education ; here I witness that success which can not be 
attained in our isolated households ; here is a system which secures 
quiet to parents, combined with economy, and to children, continual 
and careful attendance, with a guaranty of health and a contentment 
which they can find in no other way.” 

And when parents shall compare this beautiful system with that of 
the isolated household which the moralists extol, filled with children 
averse to labor, noisy, mischievous and quarrelsome, can they fail to 
confess that man has mistaken his destiny ; that w'e were created for 
the Combined Order, for domestic association ; that the moralists and 
philosophers, in extolling our isolated and incoherent system of life and 
labor, have led us astray, while demonstrating their incapacity to dis¬ 
cover the theory of a perfect society. 

Out of the Combined Order to which man is destined, all the nat¬ 
ural instincts of the child, as well as of the adult, can not be under¬ 
stood ; they are an unsolvable riddle. The domestic system of the 
Civilized Order, even in the palaces of kings, can satisfy none of the 


EARLY EDUCATION. 


167 


child’s natural desires, which, therefore, becomes refractory or peevish, 
and is thwarted in its physical and moral development. I have re¬ 
marked that the child has no natural desire to live under gilded ceil¬ 
ings, or to witness processions of courtiers and dignitaries who treat 
it with pompous etiquette, and address it academic discourses on some 
political theme ; it would much prefer a bundle of hay on which to 
roll and tumble with its mates. 

In the child, however young it may be, there lie hid many instincts 
of which we know nothing, instincts which, for want of development, 
engender in it ill-temper, and dispose it to wilfulness, to transports of 
rage, which injure its growth. 

Such children once brought together in the apartments appropriated 
to the noisy and refractory, would be a restraint upon each other; 
this quieting influence would be for the advantage of their health — 
an influence which in our present system is not secured by the em¬ 
ployment of any number of domestics ; for the attentions of servants 
can not satisfy the unknown wauts of the child; it longs for the 
society of its equals. 

I am so little acquainted with the instincts of young children, and 
I have so much aversion for their noise and mischief, that I will not 
venture to set forth in detail the arrangements which their wants re¬ 
quire ; but I can solve the question abstractly for children as well as 
parents by saying : 

That man is a being created for harmony and all forms of associa¬ 
tion : God has endowed him with inclinations which at every period 
of life are adapted to the resources and means which the Combined 
Order presents. These resources ‘are wanting alike to the child and 
the adult in Civilization ; and as the child is unable to explain its 
wants in language, of all ages it suffers most from the absence of as¬ 
sociation. Infancy being in a measure destitute of reason, is all the 
more exacting in its instinctive wants, which find no satisfaction in 
the present social order. For its subjection to a system of education 
which is contrary to nature, it avenges itself by cries annoying to the 
parents and hurtful to itself. Here are two parties, both of which are 
dissatisfied, while by the associative system of education, both would 
be made happy. Thus even in the rearing of the young, we discover 
that pernicious action of Civilization, which produces a twc-fold evil in 
place of that two-fold good to which Nature destined man, and which 
Association would realize. 


108 


MEDICAL SYSTEM IN ASSOCIATION. 


NOTE ON THE MEDICAL SYSTEM OF ASSOCIATION. 

If parents really felt for their children all the affection which they 
express, how eager should they be to see the Combined Order estab¬ 
lished, which would save at least two-thirds of the children now carried 
off by death before their fifth year. The statistics of the mortality pre¬ 
vailing among young children are really frightful. At the same time, 
with how much sacrifice is their rearing attended, and how much grief 
is caused by their loss. 

If my knowledge of the science of medicine extended to details, I 
might demonstrate by a special examination of the maladies of chil¬ 
dren, that three-fourths of these maladies might be prevented by the 
associative system of rearing them. I will cite an illustration from a 
branch of the medical art, which applies to childhood in general. 

I will select the treatment of the teeth, and the occupation of the 
Dentist. In Civilization no care is bestowed on the teeth of children: 
education neglects this important branch of the physical develop¬ 
ment ; it aims only to indoctrinate the child with some moral pre¬ 
cepts, and to teach it a few dry rudiments of science ; as to health, 
that is regarded as a secondary consideration, especially as respects 
the teeth. In the case of children they are neglected wholly among 
the poorer classes, that is to say, among ninety-nine out of a hundred 
in Civilization. A few wealthy residents of the cities take some care 
of them, for they know their value. 

In Association the means for securing sound teeth will be highly 
appreciated. In a social state, in which the average term of man’s 

life will reach a century and a quarter, no possession will be consid¬ 

ered more valuable than a fair and sound set of teeth, which can be 
used with effect in the five repasts of each day. Perfect digestion 
depends upon careful mastication : the Harmonians will set all the 
greater value on their teeth as they will consider one phase of wis¬ 
dom to lie in gastrosophic hygiene , or the art of eating and digest¬ 
ing well. They will, therefore, bestow the greatest possible care on 

the teeth of the children, which will all be examined every week by 

the dentists. 

It must be observed that in the Combined Order the group of den¬ 
tists, like other medical functionaries,- is devoted to the collective ser¬ 
vice of the Association, and remunerated in proportion to the general 
health, and not according to the number of individual maladies. It 


MEDICAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 


169 


will, therefore, be for the interest of the group of dentists that, if pos¬ 
sible, there shall be no decayed teeth in its Association. Their beauty 
and general soundness will be for the dentists a source of profit and 
reputation ; just as is the case with other physicians, who would all lose 
by the prevalence of disease, and see their dividends decrease in pro¬ 
portion to the increase of their labors. 

As the Combined Order does not estimate talent and skill by fine 
phrases and high pretensions, but by the good and substantial results 
produced, every Association will determine the ability of its physicians 
by its sanitary statistics as exhibited during a mean term of nine years. 
If one Association, according to a comparison of the tables for that pe¬ 
riod, shows an average number on the sick-list of two in a hundred 
per annum ; while another, during the same period, shows an average 
of three in a hundred, it will be inferred that the physicians of the lat¬ 
ter are wanting in skill; they will be awarded as a consequence a lesser 
dividend in the general distribulion of profits. Every physician will, 
therefore, be interested in watching over the health of the whole body. 

The Civilized Order^ in which everything is subordinate to individ¬ 
ual interests, can only produce physicians who are interested—not in 
the prevalence of general health, but in the prevalence of disease. 
This is an inevitable consequence of that system of duplicity, which 
makes it for the interest of every class of citizens to desire the misfor¬ 
tune of other classes. In conclusion, I will repeat what I have said 
in another part of this work : Civilization exhibits a system, strange in 
the extreme, a mechanism in which each part necessary to the whole, is 
in constant antagonism and conflict with the whole; and yet it discourses 
and philosophises on unity op action, and boasts of its treatises on 
political economy and public order. 

The medical art, in our present social system, is negative subversive, 
that is, it has an interest in the spread and prevalence of disease, and 
in rendering its treatment very costly. The contrary result will be 
effected in the Combined Order, in which the physician and the phar¬ 
maceutist are themselves members of the Association, and have an in¬ 
terest that the whole body shall spend as little as possible in the treat¬ 
ment of disease, and the recovery of health. The art, then, in Associ¬ 
ation, becomes positive harmonic. In the exercise of this art, as of 
every other, there is, then, a two-fold miracle wrought, a compound 
charm created, which is a peculiarity as inherent in the associative sys¬ 
tem, as compound fraud and waste are inherent in the Civilized Order. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH. 

EDUCATION OF THE SECOND PHASE OF CHILDHOOD, AGED 
FROM FOUR TO NINE. 

We are now to consider the education of an interesting class of the 
young — those already somewhat advanced, and capable of taking part 
with adults in various industrial operations; a class in which every 
member of the age of four years and upwards will become a producer 
and be able to earn his living; or, to express it technically, “to make 
money.” This is a merit on which it is well to lay special stress, as 
it is the one most highly appreciated in Civilization. 

To attain this degree of development, the two Choirs — the Cherubs 
and Seraphs — will follow no other path than that pointed out for the 
younger orders ; that is, there will be, first, such a classification of 
the children that compound emulation may be- called out ; and, sec¬ 
ondly, a triple gradation of ages and industrial capacities. This sys¬ 
tem of distribution becomes bi-compound by means of emulation be¬ 
tween the sexes, which, hardly manifest in the Infantile Choir, is a 
strong incentive in that of the Cherubs, as they take part in more im¬ 
portant functions, and as they are allowed to engage in the lighter 
branches of agriculture, in which the natural emulation of the sexes is 
fully brought out. 

In conformity with the programme of Exercises and Lessons already 
sketched in the first chapters, the training of the two Choirs of which 
we are speaking, is to be rather physical than mental. There will be 
no effort as in our present system of education to make precocious mar¬ 
vels, or intellectual prodigies of children, and initiate them at six 
years of age into scientific subtleties ; industrial precocity will rather 
be the object sought, that is, skill in corporeal dexterity, which, far from 
checking mental development, will accelerate it, as we shall see in a 
succeeding chapter. 

If we will observe the general inclinations of children between the 


EDUCATION IN ITS SECOND PHASE. 


171 


ages of four and a half and nine years, we shall see them very much 
disposed to all kinds of physical exercises, and very little to study ; 
if, then, Attraction or the aim of Nature is to be regarded, the cul¬ 
ture of the physical should predominate at that age. Hence, when a 
child of six and a half years advances from the choir of Cherubs to 
that of Seraphs, no other acquirement should be demanded of it than 
to know how to write,— an exercise which will be considered as purely 
physical, and classed among the seven of that kind already specified. 

The child of from five to eight, though very little inclined to study, 
is very much disposed to all kinds of physical activity. Incentives of a 
physical nature must then be presented it to develop its faculties in 
the order which nature intends, for she would form the body before 
the mind : hence the principal incentive in the education of the young 
is the pleasure of taking part in various operations with the older 
choirs, and of appearing in the industrial festivals of the Association. 

It is certain that children of five years of age are enthusiastically 
fond of all physical exercises of a harmonic character, while they have 
very little inclination to learn to read. The former is a pleasure to 
them j the latter a disagreeable task, — whence it is plain that Nature 
inclines them to develop their physical faculties before the mental, and 
that before six years of age, it will be difficult to persuade them to 
learn to read and write, and then only on account of their impatience 
to be admitted into the next older choir. 

Whence comes this inclination of children for physical exercises and 
material activity ? From the desire of Nature to first make man a pro¬ 
ducer— a manufacturer and a cultivator of the soil — and secure him 
wealth before initiating him into science. But in order that the child 
may engage with success in the industrial pursuits of Association, 
which require dexterity and skill, it must be very early trained in har¬ 
monic corporeal developments. Hence it is that Attraction impels it 
so powerfully to chirographic and gymnastic exercises; in them it 
will acquire the dexterity necessary in the lighter labors of the gar¬ 
dens, the stables, poultry-yards, kitchens and other departments of As¬ 
sociation, in which it will engage, and in which every operation is to 
be performed with the readiness, precision and regularity exhibited 
by our skillful performers in gymnastics. 

It will be chiefly in the Opera, that the child will develop that 
dexterity which the labors of the Combined Order require; and hence 
this institution will hold the first rank among the means of education. 


172 


EDUCATION IN ITS SECOND PHASE. 


The distribution of the choirs we are examining being the same as 
that of the Infantile choirs, which have been already described, I shall 
here treat only of those functions in which the two former are expected 
to be most actively engaged. I shall examine the five industrial Series 
in which they will take part, namely: 

X. The Opera, or school of material unities. 

1. Serial labors pertaining to the animal kingdom. 

2. Serial labors pertaining to the vegetable kingdom. 

3. Culinary labors, or the preparation of the two kingdoms com¬ 
bined. 

K. The tie of Attraction between the schools and industry. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH. 


THE OPERA IN THE COMBINED ORDER, —THE PIYOTAL 
SERIES IN MATERIAL UNITY. 

The 'civilized world has so great a fondness for the Opera, that it 
will cheerfully read a chapter on the future utility and the advanta¬ 
geous employment of this pleasure, which at present contributes so lit¬ 
tle to useful industry. The Opera in Civilization tends only to 
encourage effeminacy in morals, and involve extravagant expenditures; 
but in the Combined Order it will become a source of wealth, and of 
moral improvement for individuals of all classes and ages, particularly 
for children, educating them to measured Unity , which will be one 
means of physical development, and an aid to them in all branches of 
industry. 

Associative education, in the training of the child, regards the body 
as the auxiliary to, and co-worker of the soul. It looks upon the soul as 
a noble lord, who does not visit his castle till his steward has prepared 
everything for his reception. It begins by forming the body while it 
is still young to all the services required by a soul harmoniously 
developed, that is to say, to precision, to harmonic evolutions, and to 
UNITY. 

To fashion the body to all these excellencies before developing them 
in the soul, two means are made use of, which are quite unlike those 
at present employed : these are, the exercises of the Opera and the 
Culinary Art. Let me show that the adoption of such means is no 
arbitrary procedure, bud is necessarily required by the method of 
Nature. \ 

The child is guided by its Senses much more than by the affective 
sentiments, two of which it does not feel (Love and Familism). The 
two major affections. Friendship and corporate Ambition, affect it, but 
in such a way as to call out the action of the Senses, which are the 
child's attractive guides. 

Of the five Senses, there is one. Touch, the influence of which is 
hardly felt by the child. It has no consciousness of Love, which is 


174 


THE OPERA IN THE COMBINED ORDER. 


essentially connected with this sense ; it is besides indifferent to other 
pleasures arising from it; it is quite content with a wooden bench for 
a seat; with a mat or other rude material for a bed. ’ It disregards 
the easy chair, beds of down, and soft furs. Refinements of touch 
have no value in its eyes; but it is strongly attracted to the enjoy¬ 
ments afforded by the four olher senses, which are to be called out by 
the following means: 

The two active senses, Taste and Smell, by the Culinary Art. 

The two passive senses, Sight and Hearing, by the Opera. 

It is in these two directions that Attraction leads it: children and 
oats would constantly be found in the kitchen if left to themselves. 
So, too, there is nothing more attractive to the child than the charm 
of operatic performances and fairy scenes. 

In the vast kitchens of the Association* organized on the serial 
method, there will be a great many minor labors and details which 
can be executed by children of five years and upwards; they will ac¬ 
quire dexterity in them, as well as preliminary notions in chemistry, 
botany, etc. In the exercises of the Opera, on the other hand, they will 
acquire a sense, a feeling for material harmony, which is a type of, aud 
a preparation for, spiritual or passional harmony. 

In the Opera are united all the material Harmonies ; it furnishes a 
complete scale or gamut of them, as the following table shows: 

K. Measured cooperation of ages and sexes. 

1 . Singing, or vocal harmony. 

2 . Instrumental music, or harmony of artificial sounds. 

3. Poetry , or harmony of language. 

4. Pantomime , or harmony of gesture. 

5. Dancing, or harmony of movement. 

6 . Gymnastics, or harmonic exercises of the body.* 

7. Painting and Costumes , or harmonic ornaments. 

X. Mechanism, or harmonic geometrical combination. 


* In the opera of Civilization, very little use is made of Gymnastics; the art is 
considered in some degree vulgar. This is not so much an evidence of refinement 
as of depravity of taste. All the material harmonies are worthy of regard. But as 
many of the branches of gymnastics — rope-dancing, grotesque pantomime, etc.— are 
a pleasure of the crowd, they have been proscribed by the refined and cultivated in 
Civilization, to whom the tastes of the lower classes are repulsive. The gymnastic 
art will be restored to favor in that state of society in which all classes shall be onk 
tn manners and refinement. 



THE OPERA IN THE COMBINED ORDER. 


175 


The Opera, then, is the union of all material harmonies, and is the 
material emblem of the workings of the Divine spirit, or spirit of 
measured unity. Now, if the education of the child is to commence 
by the culture of the’physical, it will, by engaging early in this school 
of material harmonies, be rendered familiar with all branches of mate¬ 
rial unity, and easily rise to a comprehension of the spiritual unities. 

In the Civilized Order, the Opera, even in case its maintenance in¬ 
volved no expense, would be a very dangerous instrument in educa¬ 
tion ; it would, on the one hand, be impolitic in the present state of 
society to refine the poorer classes, doomed to repulsive labors and 
privations; and on the other, the opera would be dangerous even for 
the children of the rich, because such a combination of the fine arts 
enkindles enthusiasm, and awakens those noble and generous ideas 
which spring from the culture of the arts; such impressions are injuri¬ 
ous to a child, which, after being subject to their influences, is com¬ 
pelled to mingle with a selfish and deceitful world. 

The child of the Combined Order is exposed to no such hazard; 
he quits the temple of material harmony, or the Opera, only to enter 
a world of passional harmony, to take part in the Series of groups, 
where he sees all the passions working together to establish concord, 
justice, truth, unity, of which the Opera is the emblem. The Opera, 
then, will form the children to habits and usages which they are des¬ 
tined to practice, and in this respect it will be a true guide in the 
matter of education, whereas at present, it would be but a deceitful 
guide, and an incentive to frivolty and dissipation. 

Will it be objected that we propose to educate the whole human 
race as actors ? There will be nothing disgraceful in the actor’s art, 
when all the world takes part in it; and, moreover, does our civilized 
system of education form anything else than social harlequins, from 
the mock pretenders to probity among men down to the delicate pre¬ 
tenders to piety and fidelity among women ? Our present system of 
education produces buffoons in politics and morals, unworthy even of 
the name of comedians, who, when true to their art, are faithful exhib¬ 
itors of nature and reality. But leaving aside these foolish objec¬ 
tions, let us continue our subject. 

No child of the Infantile choir will be admitted to the next older, 
if it has not the capacity to take part in some of the harmonic exer¬ 
cises of the Opera; and, to give more lustre to these exercises, they 



176 


THE OPERA IN THE COMBINED ORDER. 


will be made accessories of religious worship, the ceremonies of which 
will be heightened by hymns and emblematic acts. 

The Opera becomes, then, an essential part of the training of chil¬ 
dren, whether it be those of the wealthier or the poorer members of 
the Association. The child will be all the more docile to it, as the 
the opera is supremely attractive to its years. Nothing so much de¬ 
lights the young, as unity in evolutions, the movements of choirs 
and the enchantments of fairy scenes : hence all children will engage 
with enthusiastic ardor in performances of this nature, and it will be 
necessa-ry, not so much to persuade them to take part in the opera, as 
to restrain their impatience by strict rules for -admission to it. 

As the Opera among us is only a field for the display of the arts 
of gallantry, and an incentive to wasteful expense, it is not strange 
that the moral and religious classes are at present averse to it; but 
in the Combined Order, it is a friendly gathering, for admission to 
which nothing is charged; it can give rise to no vicious intrigues be¬ 
tween parties who meet daily in the different labors of the industrial 
series. 

The question of expense will be thought an insuperable objection ; 
the Opera, it will be said, costs a vast sum for the construction of its 
requisite edifice, and as much more to keep it in operation. Can, 
then, a single Association, even if it possesses great wealth, afford to 
support one ? Certainly, for the opera, being one of the great promot¬ 
ers of harmony and the initiator of man into material unity, the advan¬ 
tages to be derived from it will far exceed the expense of maintain¬ 
ing it. 

The construction of a proper edifice will, in an Association, cost 
comparatively little, as its members are masons, smiths and car¬ 
penters by attraction, trained to their labors from childhood. The pur¬ 
chase of materials will offer no difficulty, for the product of an Asso¬ 
ciation being enormous, and its credit undoubted, it will be able to 
carry into execution any project voted unanimously. Every Associa¬ 
tion will possess groups of painters, decorators and machinists; and 
the expense of building will be merely the sums paid to the Series of 
persons, engaged in its construction, who are its members. 

Thus a pleasure which, in our piesent society, can be enjoyed only 
in the largest and most opulent cities, will be within the reach of the 
least wealthy Association in the Combined Order; all will have 


THE OPERA IN THE COMBINED ORDER. 


177 


Operas superior to those of Paris, London or Naples; for each Asso¬ 
ciation without resorting to the artists of neighboring Associations, or 
the bands of amateurs, that are constantly passing to and fro, will 
be able to furnish for the stage, the orchestra and other departments, 
several hundred performers. As every Harmonian is trained up from 
childhood in some branch of material harmony, he will be able to 
take some part in operatic representations; and thus the principle, so 
often announced, will be seen to be again verified: that in no refined 
art can even the most wealthy attain at present that degree of enjoy¬ 
ment which will be within the reach of the poorest members of the 
Combined Order. 

Dramatic functions, now attended with so many vexations, will, in 
the Combined Order, be free from everything offensive. The performer 
will run no risk of hisses, or insulting criticisms ; the custom of ren¬ 
dering no applause will suffice to inform the amateur what position he 
holds in the estimation of the spectators. There will be few, or indeed, 
no bad actors, because their great number will oblige each one to con¬ 
fine himself to a small number of pieces in which he excels. 

There are no salaried performers in the Combined Order. The Se¬ 
ries pertaining to the opera and the fine arts, like all the rest, will be 
paid by a dividend out of the general product. All classes, finding in 
dramatic representations an agreeable diversion, will desire that this 
function should be no less honored than others. It will, in fact, be 
held in the highest esteem, and become an avenue to the greatest dis¬ 
tinctions. 

Considered in its moral influence upon children, the Opera will be 
a school of ethics in miniature : by it, youth will be inspired with 
horror for whatever conflicts with truth, unity and harmony. In the 
Opera, no favor can excuse imperfection in voice, rythme, gesture or 
movement. The child of the wealthiest, in every figure and every 
evolution, is obliged to listen to the truth, and to submit to the just 
criticisms of its fellows. In the Opera he will learn to subordinate 
every movement to unitary proprieties, and general harmonies. The 
Opera is, then, the material school of unity, justice and truth, the 
emblem of the workings of the divine spirit, the true path to the 
refined manners of Harmony. 

It is not in material harmonies alone, but in social relations like¬ 
wise that the Opera will be found to lead to unity. For example, in 
the matter of language, what a disgrace is it to the Civilized world 


178 


THE OPERA IN THE COMBINED ORDER. 


that with all its boasts of progress, neighboring nations can not under¬ 
stand each other, and that no uniform language, even in the provinces 
of the same empire, though governed for a thousand years by the same 
laws, is spoken! 

To the general habit of witnessing dramatic representations, the 
Harmonians will in a measure owe unity of language, and uniformity 
of pronunciation. In the system of material unities, all parts are inti¬ 
mately connected ; language is the first link in this vast chain ; and 
the prevalent duplicity of language is a seal of reprobation upon the 
wisdom of Civilization. For where can unity be established, if not in 
the first of social relations, that of language? 

We shall again recur to the Opera as a lever in education, and as 
a means of establishing friendly ties among all the members of an As¬ 
sociation. But before enlarging on this point, it will be requisite to 
have a more complete understanding of the Industrial Series, an em¬ 
blem of which will be found in the musical and choral Series Thus 
the Opera will be cherished by the Harmonians as being a repetition 
in miniature of that social organization upon which their happiness de» 
pends. In the Civilized Order, it is merely a theatrical exhibition with¬ 
out interest for the mind, with no analogy to, or connection with, 
other institutions; but as our social system only establishes the sway 
of all forms of political and moral duplicity, what charm can the 
emblem or image of all the material unities offer us when no one of 
them, not even that of language, is known to us ? 


CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH. 


THE HARMONIC TRAINING OF ANIMALS. 

As the labors, pertaining to the animal realm, which are confided 
to children, are very numerous, I shall not stop to describe them in 
detail ; it is evident that the child of six years will be more interest¬ 
ed with doves and poultry than with the management of horses and 
oxen. I will simply treat of some one occupation, in which the chil¬ 
dren of Association will perform prodigies that could not be expected 
from adults in the Civilized Order; I allude to the measured training 
of animals. 

This is a business which, in Association, will be executed to a 
great extent by children from five to nine years of age ; at present 
such children would only render animals wild and vicious. There pre¬ 
vails in this branch of industry so great a want of skill, that Civiliza¬ 
tion can not even properly train the dog, which is the natural driver 
of quadrupeds and fowls. And how should Civilization understand 
the training of the latter, when it fails in the training of the animal 
destined to take charge of them ? 

It is a truth hitherto unknown, that domestic animals are suscepti¬ 
ble to the influence of measured harmony, and that their training can 
be made really profitable to man only as far it is carried out accord¬ 
ing to this method. It offers the means of adding to the wealth of so¬ 
ciety ; it is a subject that should arrest the attention of an age, which 
more than any other, is disposed to estimate everything by the profit 
it yields. 

We wish to show that animals, trained to measured harmony, will 
be twice as profitable as at present, the numbers being the same, and 
that this kind of training is possible only among populations which 
have been- themselves educated in that measured unity, to the influence 
of which animals are to be rendered susceptible. 

If in Association the people were not educated to a sense of mea¬ 
sured harmony, — a sense which is to be acquired only in the school 







180 


TRAINING OF ANIMALS. 


of material harmonies called the Opera,—they would experience, aside 
from other inconveniences, a loss of about half the profit that domes¬ 
tic animals would yield in the Combined Order, in which their num¬ 
ber will be ten-fold greater than what it now is. 

If it were necessary to manage and drive them according to the 
disorderly methods of the Civilizees, complete control of them could 
never be attained; they would destroy each other by their very num¬ 
ber ; and man, compelled to give them four times the care and atten¬ 
tion required by the measured system of management, would find him¬ 
self ruined in the simple effort to rear and train the innumerable herds 
and flocks which were designed to be a principal source of his wealth. 

If there is an oversight which is excusable, it is that during so 
many ages man has not discovered that his domestic animals were des¬ 
tined to measured harmony, and that they can not prosper unless it be 
applied. If he was unable to discover that he himself was designed to 
oonform to it when so many proofs exist, should we wonder that a 
like oversight was committed in respect to animals, which exhibit so 
few indications of adaptation to harmony ? The horse alone manifests 
a susceptibility to measured harmony ; and this is the source of his 
delight in the manoeuvres of cavalry ; the commonest steed becomes 
a Bucephelus when moving in the solid column of the squadron, and 
will die rather than leave the ranks. 

Other animals, like the ox and the zebra, are highly susceptible to 
material harmony, but under conditions impracticable in Civilization, 
and which can only be realized in the Combined Order. The dog, 
which is our chief servant among quadrupeds, is very well adapted to 
different harmonic operations, of which we have never had an idea. 
We can train him to perform tricks, and to dance ; but we can teach him 
no fimctious of harmony that are useful in industry. If the horse has 
that sense of harmony which enables him to make evolutions and to 
form ranks, the dog is capable of other movements, the chief of which 
is that of guiding and directing ; but the Civilized Order can make no 
use of this faculty, because it has no really great flocks and herds, and 
no means of raising them. 

In' Association, the humblest of flocks, that of geese for example, 
will consist of immense numbers, which could not be managed at all 
by the disorderly methods of the Civilizees, and particularly by the 
barbarous system of the French, who can drive animals only by beat¬ 
ing them: exclaiming “Why are they sheep; why are they horses?” 


TRAINING OF ANIMALS. 


181 


Every domestic animal in Association is trained to a sense of mu¬ 
sical sounds, like the cattle of Poitou, which move or stand still, ac¬ 
cording as their driver sings. But this is an excess, an abuse of 
musical influence 5 it should not be so employed as to weary men; 
it is enough to employ it just so far as to indicate to the animal what 
is required of it, as shepherds call their flocks by sounding a horn. 

In the management of flocks, dogs will be of very great service. 
Those of Harmony are trained to drive herds of cattle, which follow 
the sound of a small bell. Animals are accustomed, when young, to 
follow such a bell from hearing it before they are fed. Some animals, 
like the ox, the sheep and the horse, wear, when young and while 
being trained, a little bell which they are to hear during their lives, 
and which of itself will be sufficient to distribute them in droves and 
ranks. 

For example: to arrange and drive a flock of 21000 sheep in 
good order, three or four shepherds on horseback are posted in the 
front, center and rear, with a few watch-dogs and eight bell-dogs; 
these, at a given signal, alternately shake their collars with bells at¬ 
tached, and gather around them the sheep familiar with the notes of 
the respective bells. The bells will be pitched on thirds of the musi¬ 
cal gamut, so that each one may cord with the one before it, and the 
one that follows. 

Thus the dog with a collar of bells sounding the note Do, leads 
off with his flock of sheep, some of which, like their leader, wear a 
bell pitched on the same note. Then will follow the flock Mi, the 
flock Sol and the rest; in the order Do, Mi, Sol, Si, Re, Fa, La, 
Do ; each flock will number about 3000 sheep. 

The musical diapason being the same over the whole globe, a dog 
trained in any Association, can be used with the flocks everywhere, 
and every animal will know what bell to follow. This- system will 
dispense with an immensity of trouble in the management of large flocks, 
which at present can be driven only in detached masses, with very 
great fatigue, and by dint of blows, and brutal treatment, in keeping 
with other arrangements of our boasted Civilized Order. 

In the Combined Order, 50,000 sheep will be managed more easily 
than 500 are at present. If they are upon the highway, dogs that 
wear no collar will run along by their side to prevent their straying; 
they will also be kept to the road by the sound of the bells. If it is 
necessary for any reason to clear the road, the whole 50,000 can be 
19 


182 


TRAINING OF ANIMALS. 


driven into a field in a few minutes. For this purpose, the shepherds 
at the front rear and center, give a signal to the bell-dogs to leave 
the flock; they will immediately form a line in the meadow, some 
distance from the road, and shake their bells in succession. The sheep 
in eight divisions will be at once grouped around the dogs, and the 
highway evacuated forthwith. Drovers at present would spend half an 
hour in such an operation, and the sheep would be mercilessly bitten 
by the dogs, and beaten by the men.* 

I mention only this peculiarity, among a multitude of others, touch¬ 
ing the training of flocks and herds, that might be instanced. Horses 
will be so trained as to move four abreast, with no other guides than 
a few grooms, sounding different signals for each rank. 

By means of such a use of musical sounds, combined with the de¬ 
sire of food natural to animals, with gentleness of treatment and ample 
room, the zebra and even the beaver will become as tame as horses; 
only they will be differently trained. 

Out of the Combined Order, in which the Series are in operation, 
it is impossible to make a trial of these wonders in the training of 


* Even flocks of geese may be driven in ranks in this way, led by dogs with bells 
pitched on the notes of the gamut, and in the order Do, Mi, Sol, Si. Geese and other 
fowls will become accustomed to this, if trained to it young. Different varieties of 
geese, giving rise to rivalries between groups of children, are raised by different meth¬ 
ods, and in different apartments. These will easily form the habit of keeping apart, and 
following the bell of their own pen. To make them fully acquainted with it, they will 
be deceived by false notes. 

For example, three groups go, at the same hour, with food to three separate pens. 
The group that has charge of the geese of the bell Do will go to the pens Mi and Sol, 
and will ring for dinner, and give them nothing. After waiting a little, they will hear 
the bell Mi or Sol, and then get their food. After they have been deceived a dozen of 
times, they will be able to know their own note ; animals have a very sharp discernment 
in everything that concerns the palate ; they never mistake the hour of eating ; they 
would seem almost to reckon time by the clock. A horse fed but once in a stable by the 
highway, when passing two or three years afterward, will recognize it, and stop at the 
door. 

The ITarmonians will take advantage of thi3 instinct in animals, always intelligent 
where the appetite is concerned. Civilization shows great skill in training them to arts 
that are of no use; sagacious dogs are taught a multitude of grimaces and gambols 
which are of no advantage, and which waste the time of the teacher. Fleas are taught 
to draw tiny wagons. We also have learned donkeys and learned pigs. I have even seen 
a tame seal, pretty skillful in mimicry. These useless tricks show what advantage man 
may derive from animals when he shall know how to make their training unitary and 
productive ; in this business children will be chiefly employed ; they have a natural in¬ 
clination for it, but in the Civilized Order they only abuse and injure animals. 



TRAINING OF ANIMALS. 


183 


animals ; if an attempt were made to adapt the system of Harmony 
to the Civilized Order, an expense would be incurred which would be 
far greater than the advantage to accrue; the rude and coarse herds¬ 
men of Civilization would everywhere thwart it. Hence it is that the 
agriculturists of Civilization have been unable even to conceive such a 
natural and attractive system of training, and have generally employed 
only the violent method, altogether more protracted and expensive. 
Association will employ, to rear, train and perfect its countless herds 
and flocks, hardly a fourth of the number of persons that in Civiliza¬ 
tion would be employed, and save in addition the abuse of animals 
and the deterioration of breeds. 

The leaders of the Series having in charge the training of dogs and 
herds will form part of the Series of superintendents of education. In 
the Combined Order one who trains animals, fulfills an important func¬ 
tion, because it will be his or her duty to instruct in the art the 
groups of children under his or her control. 

Such immense herds as will there exist it would be impossible to 
train and manage, unless a uniform system of signs and language were 
used by those who have the care of them, which once established by 
a general congress, will be the same over the whole earth. If every 
herdsman distracted the animals under his charge by a variety of 
confused and arbitrary cries, as is the custom at present, they could 
never, with their limited intelligence, be brought under a unitary and 
collective system of training. 

A child in the Combined Order will be required first of all to 
know how to live in unity with animals; to become familiar with the 
signals to be used in calling and governing them, that he may not 
frustrate the system devised for their management. The child that at 
four and a half years of age should be unacquainted with these prac¬ 
tical notions, would be refused admittance to the choir of cherubs; 
and the jury of that choir would inform it that no one could be ad¬ 
mitted to the rank of a Harmonian, who is inferior in intelligence to 
the animals, through ignorance of their language and signs. 

And is it not to be inferior to the animal to have no sense of the 
regard due to its instincts ? It is of use to us only so far as we se¬ 
cure its happiness. Hence it is that, in a great nation like France, 
where horses are so soon worn out by hard usage, it is impossible to 
supply a sufficient number for the cavalry service; and far less profit 
is derived from this quadruped than in Germany, where it is well 


184 


TRAINING OF ANIMALS. 


cared for. The war-horse of Frederic the Great lived to be thirty 
years old; in the hands of French grooms it would not have survived 
its thirteenth year ; they would have stolen from it half its oats, while 
the owner would have worn it out by hard usage. 

Animals will be happy in the Combined Order owing to the mild¬ 
ness and unity of the method employed in managing them, the variety 
and excellence of their food, and the care of enthusiastic lovers of the 
animal kingdom, who adopt every possible means to improve the dif¬ 
ferent Species: such attentions can not be shown them in our brutal 
Civilization, in which even the art of properly arranging their stables 
is not understood. It may be affirmed without exaggeration, that asses 
in Harmony will be far better lodged, and far better kept, than are 
the peasants of sunny France. 

The value of animals thus trained and cared for, will be as much 
superior to those of Civilization, as regularly drilled troops are to an 
undisciplined horde of barbarians ; twenty thousand, or even less of the 
former, are more than a match, as we have often seen, for a hundred 
thousand of the latter. Here is a five-fold gain, resulting from proper 
discipline. In like manner there will be no limit to the advantages 
to result from the mode of training animals in the Combined Order, 
improved as they will be by the following means: 

Attractive and harmonic training; 

Serial system of management; 

Zealous efforts to improve the various species; 

M Unitary discipline. 

But where shall we find the new Orpheus who is to render the 
animal kingdom thus docile to the demands of a unitary system of 
training ? What talisman shall be employed ? No other than that 
school of material Harmonies, called the Opera, which will educate the 
natural trainers of the animals — an institution now regarded as a use¬ 
less frivolity by our moralists and practical men. It will not appear 
such in the Combined Order, in which the passional training of chil¬ 
dren, and through them of animals—from which such enormous wealth 
is to flow — will be due principally to habits formed early in children 
in that school of all measured material unities. Our pretended sages, 
in condemning the Opera, fall into the grossest of errors; they con¬ 
demn the only institution which is capable of training children to ma¬ 
terial unities, and as a result of such training, to social unities. 

We may remark of the Opera as of other kinds of amusement, that 


TRAINING OF ANIMALS. 


185 


in the Combined Order they are intimately connected with productive 
industry, and contribute to its improvement ; a result which Civiliza¬ 
tion does not secure, as in this Order, industry is wholly divorced 
from pleasure and industry. They are incentives rather to idleness, to 
the abandonment of industry, and many of them, like games of chance, 
lead to vices and crimes. It will be interesting to observe how amuse¬ 
ments, which now have no connection with productive industry, will 
in the Combined Order be allied with, and lend it their aid. 

Another remark still more important, and which naturally springs 
from our present theme, is that if the animal will yield a two-fold pro¬ 
fit by its being reared on the system of Harmony, it will yield a profit 
augmented ten-fold under the same system, because five times as many 
can be raised on the same extent of soil as now are by our present 
methods—the art of managing large numbers of animals in open fields, 
and of disposing and arranging them in immense stables not being 
understood. 

This business will be for the most part confided to children, assist¬ 
ed by a few persons of mature years. What sources of wealth! What 
a subject for study to an age that dreams only of wealth, and which 
would find inexhaustible riches in every branch of industry, if it were 
only pursued in accordance with the law of the Series! 


/ 


CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH. 

BRANCHES OF AGRICULTURE ADAPTED TO CHILDREN. 

In contrasting the disorders of Civilization with the method and 
unity that will reign in the Combined Order, it is necessary to present 
illustrations of a compound character, or the positive and negative as¬ 
pects, by proofs and counter-proofs. Thus, with the exhibition of the 
marvels of industry wrought by the children of Harmony, we must 
contrast the destructiveness and idleness of the children of the Civil¬ 
ized Order. 

I have already described children as being destructive from instinct 
and emulation. We are now to consider them as idlers, as shunning 
all the labors which Nature assigns them in the vegetable kingdom. 

In this branch of industry, Nature must have counted largely on 
the service of children, because she has produced in great abundance 
those small fruits, vegetables and shrubs, which should occupy the 
child and not the adult. These smaller and more delicate plants 
make up two-thirds of our gardens, lawns and parks. 

Flowers, with the exception of a very small number, fall almost 
entirely within the range of the labor of children and women; and 
Nature therefore gives them strong attractions for flowers and shrub¬ 
bery, the culture of which, however, in the present state of society, is 
not entrusted to them. 

The young child, desirous of being advanced to the Infantile choir, 
will select for one of its three test-performances the cultivation of at 
least one plant; for example, the pansy or parsley, and justify its 
admission to the group cultivating the vegetable, — an admission which 
it could secure only by useful service and tried dexterity. An In¬ 
fantile, desiring to be advanced to the next highest choir, should prove 
his worthiness by a cultivation of at least- three vegetables, in which 
his skill should be attested by the decision of competent groups. Ef¬ 
forts of this nature will gradually enlarge his views in different depart¬ 
ments of science, for Agriculture is intimately connected with them all. 


AGRICULTURE OF CHILDHOOD. 


187 


The child of the Combined Order will take an active part in the 
emulation existing between neighboring Associations. A group of chil¬ 
dren, cultivating the auricula in one Association, is piqued at the 
thought that the velvet-like delicacy of the same flower has gained the 
prize for its competitors in a neighboring Association. The vanquished 
group will desire to know the cause of its failure, which may, perhaps, 
depend upon a difference in the quality of the soil. Thereupon the 
teacher of that group gives them a lecture upon varieties of soil; and 
this instruction, repeated in other groups, gradually renders them fa¬ 
miliar with the elementary principles of the mineral kingdom. Chil¬ 
dren of these groups will by this time have begun to experience a 
desire to attend the schools, and to inquire for elementary books treating 
. of some branch of mineralogy, for example the classification of soils. 

Thus the Combined Order never gives a child instruction bearing 
upon one subject isolatedly. It will be introduced to one science 
only so far as it has already acquired practical notions upon some 
other, particularly in regard to agriculture, masonry, carpentry, and 
the culinary art 

Agricultural competitions will very early accustom children to habits 
of reflection and inquiry ; such habits are very necessary in the cul¬ 
tivation of flowers. What is more difficult than to attain perfection in 
the culture of the jonquil, the narcissus, the ranunculus, the tulip, and 
the different varieties of the rose and the pink? If Nature requires so 
much knowledge in the care of- such flowers, it is because she aims to 
develop early habits of inquiry in children, as they have a natural 
fondness for the cultivation of them. 

Nature has also assigned to children some functions in the heavier 
branches of agriculture, — in the raising of buck-wheat and lentils for 
example. A group of children, interested in the raising of these pro¬ 
ducts, must study the various qualities of soil and manure, and inquire 
into the influence of temperature, to understand the causes which have 
been attended with success in this or that Association. A child at¬ 
tracted from zealous emulation to these occupations, will gradually 
become a chemist and naturalist, while engaged as it fancies in the 
competitions and rivalries of its group and Association. 

Why does our present system of education exercise no influence of 
this kind upon the child, and possess no means of rendering study at¬ 
tractive ? It is because the labors, to which it confines the child, lack 
three incentives which might engage it in study; they are : 


188 


AGRICULTURE OF CHILDHOOD. 


1. Emulation. The child has not the stimulus arising from com¬ 
petitions between group and group, or Association and Association, as 
it will have in the Passional Series. 

2. Exercise in the culinary art. The child has no training in culi¬ 
nary preparations, in which it can judge practically of the excellencies 
or defects of the fruits or vegetables which it has cultivated. 

3. Gastronomic refinement. It would be hazardous in the Civilized 
Order, to accustom the child to delicacy of taste, and yet this is indis¬ 
pensable in Harmony, in which it will learn to distinguish several 
different shades of flavor in the most unimportant vegetable. Without 
this delicacy of taste, it would'be unable to understand why its group 
had failed or triumphed, or why such or such an Association held the 
first, second or third rank in the cultivation of the vegetable. 

As such a combination of incentives has no place in the Civilized 
Order, should w r e wonder that the child has no passion for agriculture, 
nor for the exact sciences, of a knowledge of which, in Association, 
the competitions of the Series would very soon make him feel the ne¬ 
cessity, and render him desirous of instruction iu regard to them with¬ 
out any urging on the part of others ? 

To recapitulate: On the one side, we have the disposition to de¬ 
structiveness and idleness : on the other, to productive occupations, and 
a zealous pursuit of knowledge and skill ; and such is the essential dif¬ 
ference between the two systems of education, that of the Combined 
Order, and that of Civilization. 

Our entire agricultural system becomes deranged by this non-par¬ 
ticipation of women and children, to whom Nature assigns so impor¬ 
tant a part in the cultivation of the vegetable kingdom. All the flowers 
and smaller fruits and almost the entire control of the gardens and 
lawns should be assumed by women and children. Now, on the con¬ 
trary, a child hardly enters a garden but to devour currants and straw¬ 
berries, which it has had no hand in cultivating, and to pluck the 
flowers ; indeed, it is a point gained if the child can be kept out of it. 

Botanists describe their science as being of all the most interest¬ 
ing, and most intimately allied with Nature: how is it then that the 
child, which is the nearest to nature, feels no fondness for this science, 
for the subject it treats, and that, instead of having any taste for bot¬ 
any, it only injures the gardens and orchards it enters, and avoids all 
agricultural labors ? 

An incontestable proof that Civilization is unable to derive any 


AGRICULTURE OF CHILDHOOD. 


189 


real advantage from the labors of women and children in agriculture, 
is that man is obliged to neglect those branches of labor especially as¬ 
signed to him by Nature, namely, works of irrigation, and the plant¬ 
ing of forests; two things to which the agriculturist in Civilization 
can not attend, as his time is taken up with labors that properly be¬ 
long to women and children, such as the care of the smaller animals 
and the gardens, from which he should be relieved. 

A singular result this of the policy of the male sex! Man seeks 
to subordinate woman, to render her dependent. What is the result ? 
Instead of rendering woman subordinate, he becomes himself a slave; 
he renders women and children non-producers. He is himself com¬ 
pelled to perform the labors which are the natural functions of those 
weaker than himself; he is moreover obliged to deduct from the pro¬ 
ducts of his toil a sufficiency for their maintenance; this is the natu¬ 
ral result of every species of tyranny; it is taken in its own snares. 

But let us more closely consider this error into which the male 
sex has fallen : man’s true function is to devote himself up to those 
heavier branches of industry which require vigor of body. These are 
three: 

The care of Forests; 

Works of Irrigation; 

Cultivation of the Cereals. 

The third function absorbs the whole time of the agriculturist; he 
can not devote to the culture of forests nor to works of irrigation the 
labor they demand; on the contrary, he only destroys the forests, and 
in so doing, destroys the natural sources and means of irrigation. 

Two out of three of the heavier branches of agriculture are, then, 
carried on in direct hostility to common sense. As to the third, the 
cultivation of the cereals, how is that conducted ? In this I distin¬ 
guish three most pernicious practices: 

1 . Neglect of the use of manures in quantity and quality. We are 
so poorly provided with manures, that enormous quantities of seed are 
expended in sowing — nearly double the quantity in fact of what will 
be used in the Combined Order. As to the quality of manures, it is 
a matter in which few or no distinctions are made by our poor agri¬ 
culturists. 

2. Suffering the ground to lie fallow. We see lands left to rest, to 
lie fallow for a year! Does the sun rest? Would there be any need 
of the system of fallow ground cultivation if the cereals were sown on 

19* 


190 


AGRICULTURE OF CHILDHOOD. 


the proper soils, enriched by manures of proper quantity and 
quality ? 

3. Slovenly cultivation. In many fields, poppies and weeds are 
as thick as the wheat, besides other evidences of a negligent cultiva¬ 
tion, which would not even be known in the Combined Order, in 
which groups of children would traverse the fields to keep them clean 
of weeds. 

Whence all these evils ? They arise from the fact that the male 
sex is overburdened with works which properly belong to women and 
children, who in reality accomplish scarcely anything. 

But what a career will be opened to the industry of man, as soon 
as women and children shall find their proper sphere of action in As¬ 
sociation ! Seven-eighths of the women will be at once ready to enter 
upon new employments by the suppression of those complicated and 
parasitic functions which spring from the isolated household, the trouble¬ 
some charge of children, and from the foolish caprices of fashion, which 
engage so many in interminable needle-work and other superfluities. 

When this false state of things shall have ceased, it will be per¬ 
ceived that five-sixths of the women will be at leisure to engage in 
other occupations. Upon what shall they be employed ? Upon the 
lighter branches of agriculture. They will then assume the direction 
of the greater part of those petty labors which now occupy the atten¬ 
tion of men. Others will be assumed by the children, which will be 
attracted to agriculture by the system of contrasted , rivalised and inter¬ 
linked Series. 

Then will there remain to men only those functions which require 
physical strength, such as the three above-mentioned, and the heavier 
branches of the mechanic arts, such as carpentry, masonry and the labors 
of the smith. Incidentally they will engage in all the lesser cultures, 
— the flower and vegetable gardens and the orchards, — but without 
taking the steady charge of them ; that will be the duty of the women 
and children. 

This natural distribution is thwarted by the non-employment of the 
children, and that system of domestic isolation which fritters away the 
labors of women. Every department of labor falls upon the man alone, 
who, thus overburdened, must necessarily neglect the most important 
branches, such as irrigation and the preservation of forests. The task 
belonging to his sex is to a great extent abandoned in order to exe¬ 
cute those belonging to the woman and child. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTH. 


THE CULINARY ART, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON EDUCATION. 

I have a singular task before me ; it is to prove the utility of ex¬ 
citing in children a taste for good eating, to render them, so to say, 
little epicures. There is no subject better calculated to confound the 
opponents of Attraction, and to render manifest the wisdom of the 
Creator of the passions. 

If Nature is wise in the general impulses which she imparts to hu¬ 
man beings, she must be so in giving to the child the strongest passion 
it possesses—the love of good living. 

To demonstrate the distributive justice of God in making this a 
dominant impulse in children, we must show that, in the Combined Or¬ 
der , the sense of taste, the pleasures of the palate, will exercise a strong 
influence in leading them to the three foci of Attraction — to Wealth , 
to Groups and to industrial Series. There is nothing admissible in so¬ 
cial polity that does not tend to these three ends, and as a consequence 
to Social Unity. 

Let me here point out an error in the use of words, which may 
lead to an error in thought. “Children,” say the moralists, “are little 
gormands ; they must be corrected, their passions moderated.” This is 
a mistake; children are not gormands, but simply gluttons. The term 
gormand is nearly synonymous with Gastronomist —a person who 
combines discrimination with refinement in eating. Now what relation 
is there between such a person and children, who eat with avidity green 
apples, and even green plums ? If they were connoisseurs in taste, 
they would leave such edibles to the swine. They are then really 
gluttons; and to correct this habit, we must teach them gastronomy, 
or the art of refinement in eating. Let us examine the advantages to 
be derived from such a transformation. 

It has been remarked that persons the most sober in the pleasures 
of the taste are educated cooks ; they are generally gastronomists, se¬ 
vere judges, knowing how to select the best dishes without indulging 


192 


TIIE CULINARY ART IN EDUCATION. 


in any to excess. Of the classes that have an unlimited command of 
delicate viands, they are proportionally the most temperate. 

The best safeguard, then, for children against gluttony, would be to 
exercise them in the culinary art, and to make them gastronomists, 
that is, effect a compound refinement, uniting the pleasures of the table 
with a hygiene adapted to the different varieties of natural tempera¬ 
ment. As this is a novel doctrine, I must support it by using words 
with exact significations, and by proofs drawn from the actual condi¬ 
tion of things in the Civilized Order. 

The moralists, as well as parents, would like to see children engage 
in industry, — in agriculture and the care of animals, and exercise judg¬ 
ment in their labors. In desiring this they desire indirectly that they 
should possess some knowledge of the culinary art, for how can they 
determine the best methods applicable to those two branches of indus¬ 
try, unless they understand the relation between the raw and the pre¬ 
pared products, between the method of cultivation and the method of 
culinary preparation : The agriculturist who is ignorant of this art, 
operates unintelligently and without fixed principles. 

This is true of agriculturists at present; they raise animals or culti¬ 
vate vegetables to make the most possible out of the purchaser ; but 
if we speculate on a system of industrial unity, if the cultivator aims 
to benefit the consumer, he ought to have some knowledge of the rela¬ 
tive value of products when prepared by the culinary art, and guide 
himself in his operations according to the requirements of this ai t. 

Hence it follows that the culinary art is an essential part of agri¬ 
cultural studies, and that in order to make of the child a skillful agri¬ 
culturist, it must be early initiated into the mysteries of the gastro¬ 
nomic art, now proscribed by the moralists. 

Another reason which would sanction the training of the child of 
the Combined Order to the culinary art, is that by this art it may be 
most readily accustomed to distinguish the delicate qualities of vege¬ 
tables, be induced to study the methods of their cultivation, and thus 
be led to take part in the rivalries of the Series. It will be impossi¬ 
ble to interest the child in the discussions and competitions of the 
Series, unless it is susceptible of feeling an interest in some shade of 
a variety, which forms a part of a series, which comprises, we will 
suppose, thirty of these shades, ten varieties and three species. Now, 
to accustom the child to distinguish grades of quality, and take a spe¬ 
cial interest in some one, that sense which is most active in the period 


THE CULINARY ART IN EDUCATION. 


193 


of childhood, must be called into action ; the sense, beyond contradic¬ 
tion, is Taste, or the love of good eating, which is everything to 
children. 

The sense of Taste, the most importunate of all the senses, may be 
compared to a car w r ith four wheels, which are: 

1. The Agricultural Art; 3. The Culinary Art; 

2. Preserving in all its branches; 4. Gastronomy; 

M Balanced Hygiene. 

Thus the works, to which the Sense of Taste impels man, comprise 
the various branches of Production , Preparation and Consumption; 
and we may truly say that he is in the path of wisdom, when he 
exercises jointly and in equilibrium the four functions connected with 
the sense. 

To attain this equilibrium, the four wheels of the car must move 
in concert, and with unimpeded action; education must, from child¬ 
hood, instruct man in the performance of the four functions of Culti¬ 
vation, Preserving and the Culinary and Gastronomic arts. From their 
union will spring the pivotal function, balanced. Hygiene, or rational 
consumption, of which it is not yet time to speak. 

Parents in the Civilized Order would be pleased to have their 
children excel in the first two functions— Cultivation and Preserving. 
By the latter, I mean the art of employing all those physical and 
chemical means necessary to keep and improve articles of food, such 
as fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. . A fruit — for example the plum—which 
will last in our gardens or orchards not more than two weeks, may 
be kept twelve months, if science be used to preserve it. In this way, 
the chemist will have relatively augmented very greatly our wealth by 
perpetuating the enjo} r ment of a fruit for twelve months, which other¬ 
wise would have endured only as many days; and this skill in the 
art of preserving will lead to greatly increased cultivation. 

It would be of little consequence to know how to cidtivate and to 
preserve , if the art of preparing food for the table were not likewise 
understood. This is a third function which the moralists would bring 
into disrepute. The Harmonians will think otherwise ; they will hold 
that they who produce and preserve with skill, should also understand 
culinary preparations, at least some of their details; and that such 
persons should know by experience how to criticise mistakes in tho 
practice of the art, and give credit for science and skill. 

Whoever shall be skillful in these branches of industry which are 




11)4 


THE CULINARY ART IN EDUCATION. 


destined to gratify the sense of Taste, will necessarily excel in the 
fourth, gastronomy ; for it will be impossible that a man whose pride 
has been aroused in the cultivation of a vegetable, in preserving it, 
and in the preparations of the culinary department, should be indiffer¬ 
ent as to its flavor and quality when served on the table; he could 
not remain indifferent to an article in the excellence of which he would 
have so many reasons to be interested ; he would desire to pass upon 
it, first as producer, either to improve or correct it in those qualities 
derived from the manner of its cultivation, or from the way in which 
it had been preserved; and then as a connoisseur, to determine how 
it had been prepared for the taste, and also to decide the relative 
merits of the groups that had competed in its production. 

Thus he who has been initiated into the three functions of Agri¬ 
culture, Preserving and the Culinary art, becomes by that means skilled 
in the fourth, or the Gastronomic art. 

Skifl in these four departments prepares by degrees the way for a 
science of the highest importance — compound hygiene — which is the 
refined preparation of food in accordance with the wants of the various 
temperaments, which our present medical science erroneously limits to 
four. 

Emulation would be weak were it exercised on a single point. The 
person who engages at the same time in the preparation of the food, 
and is a connoisseur at the table — that is, cook and gastronomist — 
will feel the incentive of emulation in a two-fold degree; if in addi¬ 
tion, be takes an active part in agriculture, he will feel a three-fold 
interest; add the function of Conservery, and the efficiency of the emu¬ 
lative incentive will be quadrupled. When all three functions are com¬ 
bined, emulation will be carried to its greatest height, for they who 
devote themselves to raising a particular kind of vegetable, will be con¬ 
tinually discussing the subject of its taste, its preparation for the table, 
its culture, and the best way of keeping it ; as also the mistakes likely 
to be committed in performing these various offices. The labor will be 
all the better done, if four different interests are brought to bear upon 
it instead of one. Emulation would be but half as intense if an in¬ 
terest were awakened only as .regards two points, and but a quarter, 
if limited to a single point. 

In Association, it will be then the policy to interest every one as 
early as-possible in the four branches of the gastronomic science, and 
to render him an expert in at least three, so as not to sink to the low 


TIIE CULINARY ART IN EDUCATION. 


195 


level of a mere glutton or gormandizer, which is the disgrace of the 
epicures of the Civilized Order, where knowledge is limited to using 
their masticating powers, without any skill in the other functions con¬ 
nected with the gastronomic art, namely, agriculture and the arts of 
preserving and cooking. 

These principles settled, it remains to be seen, whether Attraction 
will sanction such a course, whether it will engage children as w'ell as 
adults in the labors of the kitchen. We shall see that of all the in¬ 
dustrial avocations, the culinary art will prove most attractive for child¬ 
hood, if the system of Harmony be carefully followed — distribution by 
Series. I will now examine the workings of this principle in the culi¬ 
nary labors of the Combined Order. 

If an Association, according to the usages of Civilization, were to 
employ able-bodied men of thirty in dressing larks, and picking over 
rice and cocoa — an abuse which we witness every day in the kitchens 
of our hotels and restaurants — it should, then, on the same principle 
send children five years of age to the difficult labors of the fields. 

This is a necessary result of those so-called moral precepts, which 
would repress the inclinations of the child for good eating, and its at¬ 
tractions for the kitchen, in which Nature has reserved so many func¬ 
tions. The child is greatly pleased with the stir of the culinary de¬ 
partment, and would be delighted to take part in it, if provided with 
all the necessary utensils, and other means adapted to its age. 

In the Civilized Order, the child is refused admission to the kitchen, 
and for various good reasons: 

1. It is heedless and breaks the crockery. 

2. It upsets the dishes and soils its clothes. 

3. It can not manage the fire, and gets burned. 

4. In the ordinary kitchen, there is no one to look to the child and 
and give it instruction ; and no little utensils with which it can practice. 

5. In the ordinary kitchen, children are too few to form Series of 
groups, a system out of which every child tends to mischief rather 
than to useful labor. 

6 . Petty labors, such as the picking of fowls, shelling and paring, 
do not furnish in the isolated kitchens, a sufficient amount of work to 
employ groups of children, regularly distributed. 

7. In our present kitchens, there is no preparation of food adapted 
to the tastes and requirements of children. 

Finally, the culinary department in the Civilized Order would 


196 


THE CULINARY ART IN EDUCATION. 


be a school for spoiling the child on account of foolish indulgence 
on the part of servants, and accidents which would often result 
therefrom. 

Thus the first natural school for the child, the culinary department, 
is forbidden it in Civilization. I rank it first because it possesses 
stronger attractions for the child than any other. This department 
disciplines its intellect and senses, because in addition to the charm 
of miniature sets of utensils to be found in it as in other departments, 
there is the attraction of good eating, which is a passion generally 
dominant in children under nine years of age. 

Under the head of the culinary department or the serial kitchen, 
I include all the departments in which edibles are prepared, among 
others, the confectionery, fruit and milk rooms, which are the most 
attractive to children ; a confectioner’s shop is a terrestrial paradise 
for them; the first school of the younger orders would be the confec¬ 
tionery department attached to the kitchens. The garden, which is of 
very great utility in the education of children, affords no occupation 
during a part of the year; in the kitchen, however, there is constant 
activity. 

As soon as the child can think and reflect — at the age of six, we 
will suppose — it will sooner learn in the kitchens than elsewhere to 
distinguish shades of qualities in objects, and to make choice of some 
quality, for the superior excellence of which it will contend: this will 
promptly lead to the formation of rival groups, and as a consequence 
of Series. The child, having learned to distinguish the scale of tastes 
which a vegetable may furnish, both as regards varieties and modes 
of preparation, and being attracted to take part in the Series, whose 
groups are engaged upon them, will become interested in the methods 
of some one of these groups, espouse its rivalries and strive for its 
success. When it has reached this point, its interest in Industry is 
awakened-; it is captivated by the charm of industrial attraction, and 
its education will thereafter proceed of itself by the emulation excited 
in the Series. 

As the interests and rivalries which are developed in the prepara¬ 
tion of food have the greatest influence upon the child — the sense of 
taste being omnipotent with it — Association will endeavor to render 
the culinary art attractive to childhood, to provide it with utensils 
adapted to its capacity of three grades or sizes — a larger, middle and 
smaller — with intermediate grades to meet all tastes. 


THE CULINARY ART IN EDUCATION. 


197 


The child would now take no interest in watching a single spit 
with its roasting-piece ; but the children in the kitchens of an Asso¬ 
ciation will be greatly delighted to watch several spits, seven or nine 
for example, arranged around three glowing fires. 

At the largest fire, large pieces of meat on the great spits; 

At the middle fire, the middling pieces; 

At the smallest fire, little skewers with small roasting-pieces and 
little birds. 

Such an arrangement will provide functions for all ages. A group 
of children, five or six years old, can watch the smaller spits, to which 
larks and robins are attached, on one side of a little fire, while on the 
other side, the group next older will attend the spits of a little larger 
size, which hold quails, thrushes and pigeons. 

A group of children, ten to fifteen years old, at the middle fire, 
will attend to two or three kinds of spits, with poultry and pieces of 
a middling size attached. 

The adults finally will oversee the spits with the large roasting- 
pieces at the largest fire. 

This mode of distribution and arrangement* is attractive to the 
child; it is delighted by this gradation of functions, which allows it 


* To illustrate : A great pastry oven, filthy and begrimed, filled with its hissing 
and steaming platters, possesses nothing pleasing for children or adults. If in place of 
such a slovenly contrivance, we have three ovens of different sizes, faced with black 
marble to prevent the discoloration caused by the smoke ; if each of the three ovens is 
adapted to pastries of different sizes, the groups of children will be delighted to atteud 
to little pastries, cakes and other petty preparations in the smallest of the ovens. There 
will be a three-fold advantage in employing children in this way. 

1. Adults will be released from a labor which children are competent to perform. 

2. Children will be trained to labor in the presence of skillful adults. 

3. There will be provided for these very adults an incentive to emulation in being 
obliged to compete with inferiors that are children. 

Thus the Serial system, or that of industry exercised by classes ascending in rank, 
creates for children and adults a multitude of attractions, of which there is not the 
slightest trace in the system of isolated industry. Our system of labor is not suffi¬ 
ciently extensive, nor so graduated as to allow of a scale of either seven or nine 
grades in the workshops or kitchens. Every Seristery or hall of industry consists of 
such a scale of workshops; there are first three general departments, each of which 
is again subdivided into two or three. 

Such a gradation can be formed only in a very large Association with from six¬ 
teen hundred to eighteen hundred members. It could not be established in an As¬ 
sociation of the simple order, with but four hundred or five hundred members; 
much less in a little combination of twenty or thirty families, which could not fur¬ 
nish the necessary variety of industrial tastes. 



198 


THE CULINARY ART IN EDUCATION. 


to gratify its imitative propensities in mimicking those older than 
itself. 

I need not extend the comparison to the labors of the confection¬ 
ery and fruit departments; their adaptation to the tastes of childhood 
is so well known that it is sufficient to treat theoretically of labors 
which are less attractive, like those of the oven and the spit, which I 
have selected on that account. 

Let us state the general principle involved in what has thus far 
been said : In the Combined Order, when the child is to be induced 
to engage in culinary labors, a double or triple, instead of a simple 
attraction is to be presented to it. This incentive would be simple, if 
it were based only on the elegance of the kitchens, but it would be 
double or compound , if there were added the rivalries of infantile emu¬ 
lation ; it would be rendered super-compound from the indirect inter¬ 
est created by the cultivation and preparation of the fruits and vege¬ 
tables used ; hyper-compound or quadruple from the honors bestowed 
upon the leaders and the groups, and the high estimation in which 
the work is held. 

No one of the four attractions above-mentioned is to be found in 
the kitchens of Civilization, not even in the confectionery and fruit de¬ 
partments, though the latter, however, possesses some charms for the 
child. But all four meet together in the Combined Order, in which 
they will be strengthened by the three attractions inherent in the 
Series. How great then will be their influence in that Order, out of 
which, let us remark, no avocation can be invested with charms suffi¬ 
cient to attract the child to industry. 

A cook in the Civilized Order is a functionary of little importance 
outside of some small circle of epicures; this will not be the case in 
the Combined Order, in which a cook may be a social dignitary of 
the highest grade, since in that order any kind of industry is compati¬ 
ble with the highest distinctions. As this avocation, moreover, is al¬ 
ways connected with functions of cultivation, conservery, chemistry, 
hygiene and sanitary economy, the cook, in the Combined Order, must 
necessarily be a master in science. 


CHAPTER TWENTY-NINTH. 


COMPOUND PRECOCITY OF CHILDREN IN THE COMBINED 

ORDER. 

There is no desire more general among parents than that of a pre¬ 
cocious development of their children; and hence, according to our 
modern system of education, the child is trained to scientific subtleties, 
and made, if possible, an intellectual prodigy — being set at studies 
in its sixth year which it should not touch before its twelfth. 

The Combined Order will follow' the course of Nature, which is to 
train the body before educating the mind. In Nature, the blossom pre¬ 
cedes the fruit; Association follows this method in education. It is 
not to be inferred, however, that it approves of a sluggish develop¬ 
ment of the mental faculties; it will aim to produce neither prodigies 
nor laggards; it will take capacities as nature presents them, and 
seek no precocious development. 

Association will secure precocity, but in a compound mode. This 
brings us to the analysis of the two forms of precocity: 

1. The simple mental, w'hich hastens the progress of the mind at 
the expense of that of the body. Sometimes this is a natural defect, 
a want of mental balance, as in the ease of Pascal, Picus Mirandula 
and other precocious geniuses, whose lives were short. 

2. The simple physical, which develops the body at the expense 
of the mind. There are a multitude of such young persons in the 
Civilized Order, whose growth, quite satisfactory in a physical point of 
view, seems to absorb the strength of the mental faculties. 

Precocity is a defect only when it falls into one of these two Sim¬ 
plisms ; it is highly advantageous when both are avoided. This is an 
advantage which will be attained by education in the Combined Order; 
it will develop body and mind* the physical and intellectual capacities, 
in equal measure, from which will result Compound precocity. 

But this can be brought about only in so far as the natural order 
of development is followed, which is to give preponderence to— 


200 


PRECOCITY OF CHILDREN. 


Physical occupations in early childhood — in the first and second 
Phases. 

Intellectual occupations in youth—in the third and fourth Phases. 

In order, then, to develop compound precocity in children, it is ne¬ 
cessary to attract them in early childhood to physical labors, which, in 
our Civilized Order, have no attractions for them. 

Study should occupy but a subordinate place, and should be called 
forth by a curiosity awakened in the exercise of industrial functions. 

Study in the schools should be connected with labors in the gardens 
and the workshops, and should be called forth by impressions received 
from such labors. For instance, Alfred at six years of age becomes 
passionately interested in the rearing of pheasants and the cultivation 
of violets; and takes an active part in the emulations of the groups 
having these labors in charge. To lead Alfred to attend the schools, 
care must be taken not to have recourse to paternal authority and 
compulsion, nor even to the hope of reward. On the contrary, Alfred 
and his mates must be induced to ask for instruction. How shall this 
be done? By appealing to the senses — the natural guides of the child. 

The teacher who presides over the group of children having the 
care of the pheasants, will show them, when engaged in their labors, 
a large book containing engravings of the different varieties of that 
bird, which are found in the Association, or elsewhere. Engravings 
of this" kind are a great delight to children of five years of age; they 
will turn over the collection with eagerness. There is a brief descrip¬ 
tion appended to each of these pretty pictures. Two or three of these 
descriptions are read to the children; they will desire to hear all the 
rest; but their director, or a child from the next higher order that 
occasionally takes charge of them, has no time to read them. 

This is an artifice resorted to in training the younger children; all 
will unite in telling the child, making such a request, that they can 
not give it the explanations it desires; the instruction it demanded is 
adroitly refused; it is told that if it wishes to know so many things, 
it must learn how to read, as some other children, not older than it¬ 
self, have done, who are already admitted to the smaller library. 

Thereupon the book with the pretty pictures is taken to the school¬ 
room, where it is wanted. The same artifice is employed with the 
children cultivating violets; their ’curiosity is excited, but not fully 
gratified. 

Alfred, piqued at this two-fold disappointment experienced in the 


PRECOCITY OF CHILDREN - . 


201 


two groups, having the care of pheasants and violets, desires to learn 
to read in order that he may have access to the library, and see there 
the great books containing so many pretty pictures. Alfred communi¬ 
cates his intention to his friend Edgar, and both form the noble reso¬ 
lution of learning to read. As soon as this desire is aroused and mani¬ 
fested, they will find every assistance; but the Combined Order will 
induce them to ask for instruction; their progress will be far more 
rapid when study shall become attractive , and instruction solicited. 

I have here supposed an appeal to a dominant taste in childhood, 
the love of colored engravings, representing objects in which the child 
has an active interest on account of their connection with its labors. 

A means like this seems sufficient to awaken the desire of learning 
to read; let us analyze more closely the attraction excited, and show 
that it consists of a four-fold incentive: two material, and two mental. 

MATERIAL. 

1. Impatience to get at the explanation of so many fine pictures. 

2. The connection of these pictures with the animals or plants, in 
the care of which it feels a strong interest. 

MENTAL. 

3. The desire of admission to a higher order, which will not re¬ 
ceive it till it has learned to read. 

4. The criticism of those in the higher orders, who, knowing how 
to read, will make sport of the laggard. 

If these incentives are brought to bear, the success will be as rapid 
as it will, on the other hand, be slow and doubtful, if recourse be had 
to incentives now in vogue, such as the authority of parent and teacher, 
chastisements or the feeble charm of rewards and promotions. 

The same method will be pursued in all other branches of study, 
in writing, grammar, etc. A four-fold attraction will be employed, and 
innocent artifices devised, to stimulate the ambition of the child. But 
this can be aroused only in those branches of study which have some 
affinity with the labors for which the child has the greatest passion. 
Its education ought by all means to begin with industrial exercises; 
and nothing is more ill-adapted to the purpose in view than the sim¬ 
plistic method pursued in the Civilized Order, which aspires to make 
a child a geometer, a chemist, before it has conceived any fondness 
for the functions proper to awaken in it a desire for mathematical or 
chemical knowledge, or to make a practical use of such knowledge. 


202 


PRECOCITY OF CHILDREN. 


The education of the child, then, should begin with the rearing of 
animals and the cultivation of gardens, with the operatic and culinary 
arts; it should enter the schools only to enlarge the conceptions, of 
which it has already acquired an indistinct impression in its industrial 
exercises. 

In short, the education of the first two Phases of childhood, which 
comprise the period between birth and the ninth year, should be gov¬ 
erned primarily by physical considerations; whereas, that of the last 
two Phases, comprising the period between the ninth and nineteenth 
years, should have reference chiefly to the mental faculties, as is the 
case in the system set forth in the chapters which follow. Associative 
education would become simplistic in its character, if in its lower and 
higher degrees incentives were not contracted in their influence. 

By following this method, and combining it with the discipline of 
the industrial Series, children, as compared with those educated accord¬ 
ing to our present methods, will become precocious at every age, and 
precocious in every way , that is to say, in numerous branches of indus¬ 
try and science. 

In the Civilized Order, on the contrary, the child that becomes an 
adept in any one branch, is but a dunce in a hundred others. Among 
any number of children, of the age of ten, who, at present, are mas¬ 
ters of some branch of study, we can hardly find one that knows how 
to kindle a fire , to keep it up properly, and to cover up coals and 
brands in such a way that they will keep. Among women thirty 
years of age, there is hardly one in a hundred, who can make a fire, 
or manage it to suit her purposes. This art which is now unknown 
to persons thirty years of age, will be familiar to every child of four 
years in the Combined Order; instruction in it will form the half of 
his primary lessons on the first part of the divine attributes,— Economy 
of means* 


* The lesson on the attributes of God is always to be compound, to be explained 
in the material sphere by showing the various uses of fire, or the body of the Deity; 
and in the spiritual sphere, by showing the various functions of the passions , or the 
soul of the Deity. Instruction in the uses of Fire will be progressive, and will be¬ 
come more complex as the child advances in age. The child of four, seeking admis¬ 
sion to the next older grade, will be examined only in the simplest employment of 
this element; — the art of lighting, of keeping up, and of covering and preserving 
lire, using little logs and tongs. Dexterity in this respect will teach the child to 
guard against burning itself, and against dangerous employments of fire. 

The child of six, in advancing to the next age above, will bo examined upon a 



PRECOCITY OF CHILDREN. 


203 


In precocity as in everything else, we should seek to conform to 
the designs of Nature, seek to attain the highest degree of perfection. 
God is not generous by halves; his munificence toward us is without 
bounds; to conform, then, to his will, we should seek for the highest 
possible good in every department. As to precocity in children, we 
should demand it in its completeness, in both the physical and mental 
spheres, that is, an integral development of the physical and mental 
powers. 

But this two-fold development would be imperfect, unless by indus¬ 
trial exercises it should lead the way to study; and from studies or 
theories, it should conduct the child to practical functions — a combi¬ 
nation which we nowhere see in the precocious children of the Civil¬ 
ized Order. 

There are some which, at five years of age, excel in a physical 
function. In the opera at Paris, I have seen a little danseuse , said to 
be less than five years old, who was an adept in dancing and panto¬ 
mime. That is only one form of precocity, and in the Combined Or¬ 
der, would not suffice to secure her admission to either of the two 
youngest choirs. It would be but one of the accomplishments neces¬ 
sary for her to acquire. 

It is certain that skill attained by the child in industrial functions 
will soon induce it to demand theoretic instruction, and thus to per¬ 
fect the mind in proportion to the development of the body; this will 
lead to a compound integral system of education, that is, one that em¬ 
braces both the physical'and mental powers, as described in a previous 
part of the work. 

I have said nothing in regard to the progress of children of the 
age of nine, and ready to enter the choir of Lyceans. It is plain that 
the Child, who, at four years of age has been already initiated into 
several branches of industry, will in its ninth year be expert in sev- 


manner of employing Fire, which is a little more difficult, such as the proper mode 
of heating and managing little ovens. 

The next order, aged nine, applying for admission to the Lyceans, will be exam¬ 
ined in regard to the use of Fire in a compound form — in that, for example, of 
powder. 

The Lycean, seeking admission to the Gymnasians, will he examined in stilbhnore 
complex and difficult uses of Fire in its compound form ; and so with the latter in 
their admission to the Juveniles, the use of fire being in all cases a test exercise 
in the examination relating to the material attributes of the Deity. 



204 


PEECOCITY OF CIIILDEEN. 


eral departments of agricultural and mechanical industry — executing 
a detail in each — and that the rapidity of its progress will be incal¬ 
culable, so long as it shall follow Nature’s method — the Series of con¬ 
trasted groups. 

I shall speak of this result hereafter. The grand difficulty is to at¬ 
tract the child to industry, while it is still very young; this is the 
only point on which I wish to insist. This difficulty once overcome, 
education will go on of itself, provided certain moral incentives are 
applied, of which as yet I have forborne to speak, because the more 
powerful of them are to be employed upon children who are between 
nine and twenty years of age. I shall treat of this subject in the fol¬ 
lowing chapters. 

As moral influence should proceed from the older children to the 
younger, and as those of the three inferior choirs, aged from three to 
nine, will follow the example of, and the impulse communicated by, 
the three superior choirs, aged from nine to twenty, it would have 
been useless to treat sooner of the moral incentives to be employed 
with the very young: these will be considered when I treat of that 
incentive which I have styled Ascending corporate charm , or the true 
method of mutual instruction , of which the moderns have conceived and 
applied a fragment, though perverted by the tendency to simplism, 
which is an essential characteristic of all our Civilized methods. 


CHAPTER THIRTIETH. 


EDUCATION IN ITS LATER PHASES; GENERAL VIEW OF 

THE SUBJECT. 

Thus far I have explained the plan of education mainly in refer¬ 
ence to the development of the body. The details will be more inter¬ 
esting when we come to consider its application to a period of life in 
which the culture of the moral nature is to take precedence over the 
physical. We are now to call into action generous sentiments, giving 
rise to noble acts of friendship, honor and patriotism — virtues which 
should reign with full power over the young in the Combined Order, 
and which at present are unknown even to adults. 

The impulse to great endeavors is to be communicated by the older 
children — by the choirs of Lyceans, Gymnasians and Juveniles. The 
example of these choirs is to act attractively upon the three choirs of 
younger children and induce imitation. I was, of course, obliged to 
defer the consideration of incentives of a moral character, since these 
could be imparted only by the example of older children. In consid¬ 
ering the first two Phases, I found it necessary to treat simply of phy¬ 
sical education, of the means of attaining compound wealth — that is, 
health and industrial skill — the first end toward which the education 
of the young should be directed^ since it is the first focus of Attraction. 

The child of the Combined Order will have reached this point by 
its ninth year; it will have'seemed vigor of body, with a high degree 
of dexterity; it will, moreover, possess a sure guarantee of wealth in 
the skill acquired in the various occupations of the Industrial Series. 

It will then remain to develop the soul and intellect to the 
same perfection; to enable it to excel in social virtues, and in useful 
studies. 

This is the programme of the higher phases of education, which is 
to apply to the choirs of Lyceans j Gymnasians and Juveniles , aged 
from nine to twenty. 

A single circumstance will prevent the culture of the mind from 

20 


206 


EDUCATION IN ITS LATER PHASES. 


being far advanced before the fifteenth or sixteenth year: children can 
not be instructed in the general system of nature, and the beautiful 
emblems of physical analogy which pervade it. The choir of Juve¬ 
niles alone can be initiated into such studies; the two choirs of Lyceans 
and Gymnasians are necessarily excluded from them; it would be re¬ 
quisite to give them instruction in the details of sexual influences and 
relations, which, at their age, they would be incompetent to under¬ 
stand; it must, therefore, be deferred. 

It will be impossible, then, to explain to children twelve years of 
age the system of Nature, whatever may be their precocity. They 
will none the less, however, enjoy all the instruction they now receive, 
combined in addition with practice; of this they are deprived in Civ¬ 
ilization, in which teachers possess but a quarter of the means of in¬ 
struction provided in the Combined Order. They lack the theory of 
Universal analogy, of Unity of system in Nature, which is one-half of 
education; and with the other half which they possess, they can not 
combine the practice of industry and its theoretic rules. 

In the Civilized Order, Education, then, is limited to the employ¬ 
ment of a fourth of its natural resources; and this is a proper reply 
to those theorists who would make an intellectual prodigy of a child 
of twelve years, stimulate its precocity to the utmost, and force the 
growth of the mental powers instead of gradually developing them. 

The Combined Order, avoiding this error, will follow a progressive 
method of development; it will cultivate— 

The corporeal functions in the first Phase; 

The industrial capacities in the second Phase; 

The atfections of the soul in the third Phase; 

The faculties of the mind in thtf fourth Phase. 

In accordance with this method, it will not endeavor to engage the 
child prematurely in the study of the sciences, because premature pro¬ 
gress in this direction would render it necessary to disclose before the 
proper time that system of universal analogy which should be con¬ 
cealed from it until the age of puberty. Let us consider the purpose 
of the Creator in imposing this limitation upon the intellect of the 
young. 

The Deity must have provided counterpoises against the excesses 
of each of the passions, particularly those of love, at the period of 
puberty, when it is so apt to preoccupy the imagination. 

In the present state of society, there exists for youth no real coun- 


EDUCATION IN ITS LATER PHASES. 


207 


terpoise to the passion of love. The Creator has provided many for 
the youth of the Combined Order, among others the cultivation of the 
intellect by compound studies. Such studies will not be entered upon 
before the passion begins to be felt, and will be hardly less attractive 
than the passion itself. 

At that age, love opens to youth a new passional world; and at 
that period also, the science of analogy will disclose to it a new sci¬ 
entific world, adapted to the new phase on which it enters, emblems 
of which will be unfolded by the new science. Other counterpoises, 
still more powerful, will be brought to bear and will counterbalance 
the impetuosity of the passion; they will modify, without repressing 
. it, and will give it a salutary direction, consistent with the require¬ 
ments of honor and social unity. 

The effect of these controlling influences will be understood, when 
the theory of the passion of love in all its degrees and that of uni¬ 
versal analogy, or the unity of system in Nature, are unfolded. 

The Combined Order will not desire precocity in one set of facul¬ 
ties at the expense of another; in the intellectual sphere it will aim 
simply to cultivate the memory and judgment of the child. 

Its Memory will be sufficiently disciplined by the multitude of 
functions in which it will be engaged from attraction, by examining 
petty details, and by comparing the varieties of the fruits and vege¬ 
tables it cultivates and their qualities, thus combining with practice 
theoretical studies. 

Its judgment will- be trained to accuracy, and continually disciplined 
by the test of experience; this result will be attained by connecting 
its mental exercises with its industrial labors, or reflection with prac¬ 
tice; the means have been already in part explained in the chapters 
which treat of the exercise of the judgment upon the qualities of pro¬ 
ducts, as affected by cultivation, and by their culinary preparation. 

The child, possessed of these two mental qualifications, a disciplined 
memory and a methodical judgment as well as the two physical advan¬ 
tages— vigor of body and industrial dexterity — will have satisfied the 
precept of Horace, “a healthy mind in a healthy body”; that is, 
Compound perfection of the mind, and Compound perfection of the 
body. These are the four pivots of the integral precocity which will 
be possessed by youth in the Combined Order. 

There will remain one other condition to be fulfilled which is still 
more important, and which is unknown to the system of education in 


208 


EDUCATION IN ITS LATEE PHASES. 


the Civilized Order; and that is the development of the Soul of the 
child ; the moulding of it to the practice of the social virtues, to the 
sentiments of honor and friendship, to the sacrifice of the individual to 
the collective interest, to devotion to the cause of God and humanity, 
or the cause of social unity. 

To attain this end will be the object of the corporate bodies whose 
functions and regulations I am about to describe. To these bodies I 
will give the name of the Juvenile Legion, and the Juvenile Band. 

Upon these two corporations depends the important work of edu¬ 
cating the soul—a work entirely unknown to our Civilized methods, 
which seek only to give an artificial training to the mind, and that at 
the expense of the bodily health, and very often at the expense of the 
soul, which present social influences impel to selfishness and deceit, and 
to pretensions to virtue without the practice. 

I always feel an aversion to use the words God and Humanity, 
when addressing an age which has done so much to desecrate them, 
which has made them a convenient mask for selfishness and hypocrisy 
— a result inevitable in Civilization, which is increasing in open or 
hidden corruption as it advances from phase to phase, and which 
will continue to do so until an issue or escape from it is discovered. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-FIRST. 

THIRD PHASE OF EDUCATION —THE JUVENILE LEGION. 


Young souls, hearts that are fresh, exhibit in the exercise of the 
social virtues, such as friendship, philanthropy and devotion to the 
collective good, a degree of ardor and disinterestedness which is rarely 
found in adults, whose training in the world leads them to make at 
every step compromises with truth and justice. 

The Combined Order will turn to account this-tendency in chil¬ 
dren to generous and devoted deeds; it will know how to employ them 
in labors from which adults would shrink—labors of an uncleanly and 
repulsive character. 

The disgust which uncleanly and offensive labors excite in the 
present Order, is overcome by the incentive of pay; but in an Order 
in which Attraction is to be the essential lever of industry, means 
must be found to secure the execution of such labors from attractive 
and honorable incentives. 

The whole system'of Industrial Attraction would fall to the ground 
if means were not discovered to connect powerful inducements with 
the performance of all disgusting and repulsive works, now executed 
by poor hirelings, who are driven to the task by want. But if the 
performance of uncleanly and despised works can be secured by in¬ 
ducements sufficiently strong to render their execution, voluntary, the 
performance of those which are difficult and irksome only, without 
being disgusting, will be all the more easily executed from the «eame 
motives. 

To attain this end, to secure the execution of uncleanly works, a 
body or corporation of youthful Decii, who will assume the perform¬ 
ance of all uncleanly offices, and render them honorable, must be created. 
This will by contrast reflect honor on all services in regard to which 
attraction is in a measure inoperative. 

What tone of manners will exist among this brotherhood of chil¬ 
dren, devoted from enthusiasm, from the religious and unitary spirit, to 


210 


TIIE JUVENILE LEGION. 


the most repulsive employments, such as the removal of filth and the 
cleaning of sewers ? Shall they have those delicate manners of our young 
fashionables ? Certainly not. Their tone and language must comport 
with the work they have to perform, at least while engaged in it. 
Hence this youthful fraternity will have its cant terms and brusk 
manners. 

In the education of the Combined Order, there is a much more im¬ 
portant task to be performed than to. make learned prodigies of chil¬ 
dren; the Combined Order will make them heroes in social virtues, 
devoted to the support of social unity. Of what avail is it to educate 
the intellect before training the soul, to initiate children into science, 
before forming them to those habits and customs that fit them for a 
Social Order which shall secure the happiness of the entire human race. 

The principal support of Social Unity, the 'palladium of passional 
harmony will be found in a corporation of industrial Decii, composed 
of children between the ages of nine and fifteen. 

I will explain the organization of this corporation, which I will call 
the Juvenile Legion; it will execute a class of labors that will re¬ 
lieve adults from the necessity of engaging in uncleanly and disgust¬ 
ing occupations, and avoid any disgrace being connected with their 
performance. In the present and following chapters, I shall describe 
this corporation, and also another, forming a contrast to it, to which I 
will give the name of the Juvenile Band, whose members will be of 
about the same age. 

These corporations will not, like our present ones, be subject to 
statutes arbitrarily enacted according to the whims of a founder; they 
will be governed by laws dictated by attraction, and will have a defi¬ 
nite function to perform in maintaining passional harmony and social 
unity. 

I will first treat of the requisites necessary to organize these Cor¬ 
porate Bodies, which' are to consist of the. two choirs of Lyceans and 
Gymnasians. They should be provided with an equipment quite un¬ 
known among us, namely, a supply of ponies like those of Shetland.. 

It will be with difficulty that such can be procured when the Com¬ 
bined Order is first instituted. There are very few to be found in 
Civilization, where they have no special use, and the. rearing of them 
is neglected. But in Association they will be of great utility in the 
service of the young troops — the Juvenile Legions and the Little 
Bands — and will have an important influence in education. 


THE JUVENILE LEGION. 


211 


Perhaps some utilitarians will say: “Let them go on foot; it will 
be more economical.” In the same spirit we may answer: “ Let your 
ministers of state give up their carriages and go on foot; that would 
be more economical.” 

They will answer, that ministers of state must command respect by 
outward display. The same will be true of the Juvenile Legion; the 
older children must gain the admiration of the younger, in a two-fold 
mode: in material things, by splendor of costume; in spiritual, by the 
lustre of noble and useful deeds. Without a resort to this two-fold 
charm, how could the older choirs attract the younger? The latter, as 
has been shown, are to be influenced by a four-fold charm, which has 
been technically styled the ascending corporate. 

The first means of impressing the younger choirs will be addressed 
to the sense of sight (for we must always appeal to that sense in a 
child); and this will be the spectacle of the older choirs mounted on 
their little horses. 

If with the.se outward honors is connected distinction in the social 
virtues, such as devotion to the collective good, and to the cause of 
God and social unity, the youngest choirs, whose ages range between 
three and nine years, will follow with enthusiasm the example set 
them by the older, aged from ten to twenty. It is by the Vestalic 
Corps and the Juvenile Legion that this effect of ascending corporate 
charm will be produced.' 

If the experimental Association would achieve a brilliant success, 
it should procure about two hundred ponies, of a size adapted to chil¬ 
dren between the ages of nine and fifteen, that it may give the proper 
distinction to the corporate bodies whose members are of that age; 
for these bodies are the most powerful lever of industrial emula¬ 
tion which can be brought to bear upon the younger orders of 
childhood. 

I repeat that there will be no need of such a lever in the estab¬ 
lishment of an Association on a reduced scale. It is to be understood 
that I am describing a complete Association, so that I may afterwards 
determine how far it may be simplified when but a partial experiment 
is made. 

For the present, then, we will suppose that the choirs of Lyceans 
and Gymnasians will use ponies, and form two corps, bearing the 
names of Legions and Bands. 

The Legions will adopt the Tartar system of evolutions; they will 


212 


TIIE JUVENILE LEGION. 


move in hollow squares or circles, in the center of which is the stand¬ 
ard-bearer. 

Twelve squares, styled nebulae, will form a constellation. Every 
Association will have its Legion, consisting of three nebulae, two mas¬ 
culine and one feminine. 

The Little Bands will move in platoons and columns; their evolu¬ 
tions will resemble those of our present cavalry. 

Among children under the age of puberty two-thirds of the boys 
make a sport of rough and uncleanly occupations. They love to wade 
in the mire, and take a special delight in playing in the dirt. They 
are self-willed, rude.and daring, fond of gross language, and of assum¬ 
ing imperious airs. 

Such children, in the orders of Lyceans and Gymnasians, are to be 
enrolled in the Juvenile Legion, whose function it will be to perform, 
from a sense of honor and a love of daring, every species of filthy and 
repulsive labor. This corporate body is to be a sort of semi-savage 
legion, contrasting in its bearing with the refined elegance of the Com¬ 
bined Order; but in manners alone, however, and not in its senti¬ 
ments, for it will be animated with the most ardent devotion to the 
cause of collective friendship and social unity. 

The Legions will be made up, two-thirds of boys, one-third girls. 

The Bands, two-thirds of girls, one-fhird boys. 

Each of these two corporations is to be subdivided into three classes, 
having special functions to perform, and distinguished ny special names. 
For the Legions, three rough names are to be chosen; for the Bands, 
as many of a romantic character! 

The first class of the Legion will take upon itself the performance 
of all uncleanly and repulsive functions; the second, those of a dan¬ 
gerous or difficult character, such as the pursuit of reptiles, and other 
services which require dexterity. The third class will participate in 
the least difficult of both functions. 

The female members of the Legion will perform such functions as 
cleaning and preparing for the cooks the lesser animals; also the 
repulsive services in the kitchens, sleeping apartments and wash¬ 
rooms. 

The ornaments of their dresses should be of a grotesque character. 
For example, for parade decorations, the Legion will probably adopt 
a costume like the Hungarian — tunic and large pantaloons. The first 
class will have for a scarf an iron chain of hollow links, and a girdle 



THE JUVENILE LEGION. 213 

with pendants; the second class will wear a similar chain made of 
copper, the links hollow to diminish the weight. 

A similar taste will reign in other ornaments, in those of their 
chariots and harnesses; and their assembly-room will be festooned 
with iron chains. This semi-barbaric equipment is only an apparent 
rudeness, for the Juvenile Legions are devoted and ever ready to 
serve ; they affect an abruptness and a tone of superiority quite un¬ 
like the mincing and affected manners with which the education of 
Civilization would imbue children. In contrast with this, we shall find 
an extreme degree of politeness and refinement characterizing the Ju¬ 
venile Bands. 

These youthful hordes have their corporate language, their little 
artillery, and their leaders, styled little Khans—a Tartar name, chosen 
because they adopt Tartar manoeuvres in their evolutions. 

They have also their acolytes chosen from among older persons 
who have preserved that inclination for uncleanly offices which is so 
common among children. These acolytes are attached to the Legions, 
and aid and direct them in their labors, making it a point of honor, 
like their followers, to take in hand any kind of repulsive labor. 

The parade attire of each member of the Legion will be composed 
of materials of two entirely dissimilar colors. For example: 

A. Blue tunic, crimson pantaloons. 

B. Bose-cobred tunic, green pantaloons. 

C. Violet tunic, pale-yellow pantaloons. 

D. Orange tunic, dark-red pantaloons. 

If, then, the legion should parade with fifty members, it would dis¬ 
play a hundred colors, artistically contrasted, and its costumes would 
be also unlike those of the neighboring Association, both in simple and 
mixed colors. 

Thus in the gathering of the legions of four neighboring Associa¬ 
tions, forming twelve bodies of twelve squares each, there would be 
seen, in the matter of costumes, four hundred skillfully varied, and 
nowhere confused. This would be a very embarrassing problem for 
civilized art, which, with all its science and skill, has never been able 
to find more than a dozen colors to distinguish the facings of the uni¬ 
forms of regiments, although it would be so easy to make out a hun¬ 
dred, quite marked and distinct from each other. 

This display would not be superfluous in Association; the Legions 
20 * 


214 


TIIE JUVENILE LEGION. 


must necessarily exert a great influence on the younger children, and 
to do this, it is necessary to appeal to the eye of the child. 

In conclusion, let me remark that this body of youth is one which 
is to control the power that rules the world, namely, the power of 
money. In the devotion of the Legions will be found an antidote to 
cupidity; they will put an end to all discords on questions of inter¬ 
est and secure the preponderence of disinterestedness and unity in all 
discussions regarding the distribution of profits, which of all others are 
the most dangerous; because every passion will create discord, if self- 
interest be not first subdued to order and harmony. 

The Juvenile Legion will combat against cupidity and the power of 
gold, and compel them to yield to a civic and religious virtue— charity. 
The philosophers will smile at this assertion. They judge of the re¬ 
sources of the Combined Order, and measure its means, by their own 
limited capacities. Doubtless Gold would remain master of the field, 
if that .Order could oppose to it only their theories. But Association 
will oppose cupidity with substantial virtues. For why should the 
Creator have inspired us with admiration for virtue; if he had provided 
no means to insure Us development in human society, and secure its 
ultimate triumph. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-SECOND. 


CIVIC FUNCTIONS OF THE JUVENILE LEGIONS. 

The post of the Legions is always at that point where any indus¬ 
trial difficulty and repulsion exist; they are a Corps d' elite in the 
industrial operations of an Association; they concentrate their strength 
on those points where Industrial Attraction is likely to be wanting. 

If aversion to any branch of industry should bring it into disre¬ 
pute, the Series engaged in it would fall into disgrace, and its mem¬ 
bers would become a class of Pariahs. Such a result would derange 
the whole working of the social order: friendship must be general 
among all the members of Association, in order that the most refined 
and wealthy may have no aversion to share in -the labors of the dif¬ 
ferent series. Attraction should, then, extend to all branches of indus¬ 
try, and prevent any from falling into contempt, or even declining in 
general estimation. 

Yet there are some which can not be rendered attractive; for ex¬ 
ample, the cleaning of privies and sewers. Means must be devised for 

overcoming an obstacle like this, and in default of direct attraction, 

indirect must be sought for and applied to all functions, even the 

meanest. 

It may be answered that, according to the law of exceptions the 
seven-eighths represent the -whole, it will suffice that these seven-eighths 
shall be attractive,, and that the one-eighth, which is repulsive, shall 
be provided for by an increase of pay. That is a principle which may 
be applied to incomplete Associations, but if, in a perfected organiza¬ 
tion, Attraction were inoperative in an eighth <3f all labors, such a de¬ 
ficiency would bring all menial services into disrepute, and as a con¬ 
sequence domestic labor generally — destroying that friendship, that tie 
of affection, which should exist between the members, between the 
served and those who serve. 

We must, then, render the performance of the most menial func¬ 
tions— those which excite a direct repugnance —an exercise of religious 


THE JUVENILE LEGIONS. 


210 

philanthropy; we must counterbalance this repugnance by an indirect 
and compound attraction. To accomplish this, will be the aim and 
function of the Juvenile Legions.. 

The first guaranty of attraction in the performance of their labors 
will be found in the shortness of the periods of their occupation; like 
those of every other Series, their labors will be of short duration, 
hardly exceeding an hour and a half; it will be the custom in many 
cases to assemble them by cohorts drawn from four or five neighbor¬ 
ing Associations. These cohorts will be present at the morning meal 
a quarter before five o’clock; then, after the morning hymn and the 
parade of the groups which are to commence labor at five, the charge 
of the Legions will be sounded by the beat of drums and the blast 
of trumpets. Then, led by their Khans, they sally forth and enter 
upon their work with eagerness, which will be performed as a deed 
of piety, as an act of charity toward the Association, performed in the 
service of God and Unity. 

When their work is ended,, they go to their ablutions and toilet; 
then dispersing through the gardens and w’ork-sliops till eight o’clock, 
they return in triumph to breakfast with their colleagues. Each of 
the Legions here receives a crown of oak or thorns, which is affixed 
to the banner; and after breakfast, they mount on horseback and re¬ 
turn to their respective Associations. 

Among their duties the Legions attend to the repair of the high¬ 
ways, that is, they give daily attention to keeping them in proper con¬ 
dition. The highways in the Combined Order are regarded as courts 
of unity ; and, as a consequence, the Juvenile Legions, as devotees of 
unitary charity, make it their, business to see that the roads are kept 
neat, and are properly ornamented. 

The Combined Order will be beholden to the pride of the Legions 
to have the roads w r hich traverse the whole country more elegant than 
the walks of our lawns. They will be adorned with trees and shrub¬ 
bery, and even with flowers, and the footw r alks sprinkled. 

If a road shall be in the least injured by any accident, notice will 
be immediately given, and the Legions will proceed at once to make 
repairs, hoisting a signal flag that passers may not charge the Associ¬ 
ation with having a negligent Legion. The Association w’ould be liable 
to a similar charge if any loathsome or venomous reptile were found 
on its domain, or if the croaking of frogs were to be heard near the 
highways. 


THE JUVENILE LEGIONS. 


217 


Although the labor of the Legions will be more repulsive than any 
other, on account of the absence of direct attraction, the reward they 
will receive will be less than that of any other Series. They would 
receive nothing, if it were considered honorable in Association to re¬ 
ceive no remuneration; as it is, they take the smallest dividend allow¬ 
able; but this does not prevent their members from receiving the 
highest pay in other branches of labor, if they merit it; but as a body 
devoted to unitary philanthropy, they make it a rale to hold riches in 
indirect contempt, and to engage avith zeal in repulsive functions from 
a'point of honor. 

A devotion like this, which will appear to us of little consequence, 
is the palladium of Social Unity, as we shall see when we come to 
treat of the equilibrium of friendship as a social power; this could 
not be maintained without the assistance of such a corporation. 

Preservers of social concord and unity, defenders of the nobility of 
Industry, they are to bruise the serpent’s head in a material and a 
moral sense; and while ridding the fields of reptiles, they will purge 
society of a poison worse than that of the viper; by their disinterested 
labors, their self-sacrifice, they will annihilate every germ of cupidity 
which might disturb the general harmony; and by assuming the bur¬ 
den of uncleanly and repulsive functions, they will extinguish that 
pride which, by bringing into disrepute any branch of industry, would 
reestablish the spirit of caste, and destroy general friendship. They 
know how to employ for the welfare of society that self-denial which 
is inonlcated by Christianity, and that contempt of riches, inculcated 
by philosophy. In fine, they are the promoters of all the social vir¬ 
tues, both in a civil and religious sense. 

They are rewarded in return by unbounded honors; the Legions 
will constitute the noblest chivalry of the globe; they will take, prece¬ 
dence over all other industrial Series, and the highest authorities owe 
them the first salute. They are everywhere received with regal re¬ 
spect, and at their approach, they are greeted by the dipping of ban¬ 
ners and other marks of honor. When in uniform, they are addressed 
with the greatest courtesy; in the temple, their place is near the 
altar, and in ceremonies and pageants, they occupy the first rank. 

The chief of the Legion of an Association may often command ten 
thousand men, forming a division of an industrial army; for such a 
division never leaves an Association where it may have temporarily 
encamped, till it shall have taken part in the parade which follows the 


218 


THE JUVENILE LEGIONS. 


morning repast, and the hymn of praise to the Deity. At this parade 
the little Khan, a youth between twelve and fifteen, commands. 

The Legions take the initiative in all the labors of the industrial 
armies, for when an army is assembled, it will not itself open those 
labors ; that privilege is reserved for the Legions. Like grenadiers, 
they must be the first to mount the breach; they join the industrial 
army on the day fixed for the opening of the campaign: engineers 
will have marked out the plan of the initial work which they are to 
perform; and they put the first hand to the enterprise, amid the 
acclamations of the army. . * 

They are always up at three in the morning, cleaning the stables, 
attending to the domestic animals, and executing any of those un¬ 
cleanly or repulsive functions to which their corporation is devoted. 

They have the general guardianship of the animal kingdom; who¬ 
ever shall abuse quadrupeds, birds, fish or insect, either by hard usage 
or by unnecessary cruelty, will be amenable to the tribunal of the 
Legion; and whatever his age may be, he would be brought before 
this tribunal of children, and treated as inferior in moral sentiment to 
children themselves; for it will be a rule in the Combined Order, 
that whoever shall abuse poor creatures incapable of defending them¬ 
selves, is to be considered more of a brute than the animal he injures. 

The guardianship of the vegetable kingdom will belong to the Sen¬ 
ate of the Little Bands; and whoever shall injure flower or fruit, tree 
or vegetable, will be amenable to that tribunal. 

No class will be envious of the distinction conferred on the,Juve¬ 
nile Legions; it will be deserved by the performance of the repulsive 
labors of the Association. The Legions are composed only of charac¬ 
ters of a strong stamp, who can endure severe trials. On the day of 
admission to their ranks, the applicant must have the firmness to un¬ 
dergo some severe tests to prove his courage and fortitude. One half 
the youth will be unable to undergo such trials; they will then enter 
the Little Bands, who also have useful functions to perform. 

But respect and honor will be especially due to the Legions, be¬ 
cause, in the Combined Order, they will be a two-fold palladium , shield¬ 
ing it from the assaults of both Pride and Cupidity — a double victory, 
which, it is ordained by Nature, shall be achieved by children rather 
than adults! How little have our theorizers on social equilibrium sus¬ 
pected that the fount of patriotism is in the hearts of children, and 
that they are one day to be the pillars of all the social virtues! 


CHAPTER THIRTY-THIRD. 

OBSERVATIONS ON PASSIONAL EQUILIBRIUM. 

You would change then the Passions, exclaim our political and 
moral theorists—change the nature of man ; and when they have said 
this, they think they have raised insuperable objections to the possi¬ 
bility of social unity. 

Rather it is these theorists who would change the passions, if we 
may judge by the numerous coercive means — political and moral — 
which they employ for the maintenance of order in their social organ¬ 
ization. Let us examine whether it is they or I who propose to 
change the passions. 

No fact is better known than the fondness of children of ten or 
twelve years of age for dirt, their tendency to sport with filth. When 
they have soiled their clothes, and those of others, or defiled their teach¬ 
ers’ chairs, the moralist declares they must be corrected, must be pun¬ 
ished. The love of sport inspires children, when brought together, 
with a perfect mania for dirt. This propensity would do no harm, if 
there were any way of rendering it useful to industry, and of advan¬ 
tage to children themselves. 

u You are thinking of children badly brought up,” the moralist re¬ 
plies; “there are others inclined only to cleanliness.” 

Doubtless some are so ; and I am going to point out a proper 
function for such in the next chapter : but still the fact is plain, that 
two-thirds of boys, and a third of girls, love to play in the dirt. Now, 
if we really do not wish to change the passions, we ought to find 
some useful function for this propensity, which is clearly natural in 
one-half of youth ; it is now held to be a defect, but by means of 
the Juvenile Legion, the Combined Order will secure a most valuable 
function for it in social equilibrium. 

My theory aims simply to utilise the passions as Nature created 
them , without at all changing them. That is the whole mystery, the 
entire secret of the theory of Passional Attraction. I do not discuss 


220 


PASSIONAL KQUILIBKIUM. 


the question whether it was right or wrong in God to give men such or 
such passions; the Combined Order accepts them as they are, without 
changing them, and as they were created by him. 

The correctness of the principle, that we are to make use of the 
passions as they are , is now to be proved by its application to a ques¬ 
tion upon which morality is indifferent; for example, in regard to the 
propensity of children for dirt, to make a sport of, and to play in it, 
which, in morals, is a matter of no consequence. The principle once 
established, we shall show its application at greater length hereafter. 
We shall apply it to all the passions, and show that whatever God does, 
he does well . 

Let me first consider the principle in its application to the younger 
children of whose education I have already treated, and again repeat 
a doctrine which has been discussed, but the proofs of which can not 
be too frequently stated. 

My object is to show that Passional Attraction is a true guide for 
man, that it is adapted to all his social wants, as Well as to exhibit 
the wisdom of the Creator who has given it to all ages according to 
the requirements of the Combined Order. 

In the first chapters, I vindicated Providence for having given to 
young children certain attractions which seem to -us useless; first, cu¬ 
riosity and fickleness ; the design of these propensities is to attract the 
child to a variety of Series, in which it is to be trained to industry ; 
secondly, fondness for the society of children older than itself ; from 
such it is to receive in the Combined Order the impulse of the ascend¬ 
ing corporate charm; thirdly, inclination to disobey parent and teacher; 
these persons are not its natural instructors; its education is to be ob¬ 
tained in the Series by means of their emulative rivalries. 

Thus all these so-called defects or faults of infancy become useful 
qualities in the Combined- Order, and are wisely adapted by the Cre¬ 
ator to its organization. 

I have just indicated a propensity in young children, which is very 
generally censured; I mean the inclination to uncleanliness. In them 
it is harmless and not offensively displayed : it is strbnger in children 
between nine and twelve years of age, who make sport of filthy work ; 
they carry it to excess, and even form vast plans for mischief in this 
way. For instance, they go about by night, defiling the knockers of 
doors and bell-handles with mud or ordure. Their plots are generally 
well laid and cunningly executed, save the blows they now and then 


PASSIONAL EQUILIBRIUM. 


221 


receive, which, however, have very little effect in discouraging their 
generous ardor. 

Whence this passion for filth in children of this age ? Is it a de¬ 
fect of education ? Does it arise from a want of moral training ? Cer¬ 
tainly not, for the more they are lectured about it, the more they prac¬ 
tice it. Is it depravity? If so, Nature is, then, herself depraved, for 
she excites these inclinations in them. If the distribution of Attrac¬ 
tion is right in all its details, these propensities, considered vicious, 
must have a useful function, for they are very strong in the majority 
of children of ten to twelve. 

We can not solve this enigma in Civilization ; but the explanation 
of it is this: the fondness for dirt and filth is an impulse necessary to 
induce children to join the Juvenile Legion, to aid them in bearing 
with cheerfulness the disgust incident to the performance of uncleanly 
functions, and to open to them in the discharge of. such functions a 
vast field for unitary philanthropy and industrial glory. 

Here, then, as everywhere else, the Creator and Distributor of At¬ 
traction, in what he has done, has done well; and science would 
have come to the same conclusion, even before the solution of the 
problem, had she known how to look beyond the horizon of civilized 
habits and prejudices, and had not believed that Nature , in social or¬ 
ganization , is limited to means already known , that is, to the social sys¬ 
tems now existing on the earth. The human mind, as yet engrossed 
with theories and abstractions, or with the details of physical science, 
has not risen to an investigation of the principles of Social Science. 

The inclination to filth, so common among children, is but an un¬ 
developed germ ; it is like a wild fruit; it must be refined by con¬ 
necting its action with that of the unitary religious sentiment , and cor¬ 
porate pride. Supported by these two impulses, repulsive employments 
will become attractive sports; — the Attraction will be indirect and 
compound. This condition, explained in the preceding chapter, is se¬ 
cured by the two impulses just mentioned. 

In the performance of noxious functions, by which the health of the 
working classes is not often seriously compromised, the children of the 
Combined Order will not expose their own, since they are always en¬ 
gaged for but a short period, and are submitted to a.purifying process 
before and after their labors. The Legions will be on their feet at 
three o’clock in the morning, even in mid winter ; but the scene of 
their labors being a Palace, with its covered galleries and corridors, 


222 


PASSIONAL EQUILIBRIUM. 


they go to and fro without exposure. They will pass from the main 
edifice to the stables by underground passages ; they will not, then, 
bo exposed to the inclemency of the weather in performing their morn¬ 
ing duties. Retiring to rest at eight o’clock in the evening, they will 
have ample time for sleep; in their labors they will be compelled to 
violate none of the laws of health. 

Thus much by way of preamble: let us now consider the subject 
of Passional Equilibrium. 

Why is youth assigned the highest function in securing the reign 
of general friendship ? It is because children, as regards the influence 
of the four social passions, are wholly governed by honor and friend¬ 
ship. Neither love nor the family sentiment detract anything from the 
intensity of these passions. In the young, then, we find friendship in 
all its purity ; and the most noble development should be given to 
it, which is that of unitary Social Charity. This sentiment, by impel¬ 
ling the Legions to assume the exercise of all abject functions, will 
prevent the degradation of any class, and thus preserve and maintain 
friendship between all the members of an Association. 

I have already stated that if there were in the Combined Order a 
single function which was despised, or reputed ignoble and degrading 
to the class that exercised it, menial services would soon come into 
disrepute in every branch of industry,— in the stables, the kitchens, the 
private apartments, and the workshops; a large number of functions 
would become dishonorable; by degrees contempt for labor would 
revive, and in Association those who do nothing, and are good for 
nothing, would come to be considered, as in Civilization, the superior 
classes. The wealthier members would no longer take part in the in¬ 
dustrial Series, and would repel all social intimacy with the poorer 
members. 

Children will guard the social body against this evil by undertak¬ 
ing in their corporate capacity every labor which is despised, prose¬ 
cuting it in behalf of the entire social body, and not for the benefit of 
the individual. (Attendance on the sick, however, will be assigned to 
adults; though in case uncleanly offices are to be performed, some 
members of the Legion will be called upon.) It is only to the young 
that we can look for the performance, through indirect attraction, of 
all uncleanly labors. 

And what will it cost to bring the Juvenile Legions to perform 
these prodigies of philanthropy? A few honors and privileges, such 


PASSIONAL EQUILIBRIUM. 


223 


as the first place at parades, a salute of honor, the right of beginning 
important works, and of being first at difficult posts! Thus one sacri- 
• fice is rewarded by the privilege of making another. This accords 
with the requisites of a compound system of incentives, which is the 
only one adapted to the inclinations of the human heart. The corpo¬ 
rate bodies of Civilization which are the most austere, are frequently 
those which secure in their individual members the greatest affection 
and constancy; how much more will this be true of the Juvenile Le¬ 
gions, whose devotion will have to contend with nothing which is phy¬ 
sically painful, owing to the natural inclination of the young to make 
sport of uncleanly works. 

For a long time I made the mistake of blaming this singular pro¬ 
pensity of children, and sought to overcome it through the influence 
of the Passional Series: it was playing the part of a Titan, endeavor¬ 
ing to change the plans of God. I obtained success only when I con¬ 
sented to follow the indications of Attraction, and sought to utilize the 
inclinations of childhood as Nature created them. The study of this 
principle gave me the corporate body which I have just described, and 
which is one of the four pillars of social harmony, one of the cardinal 
levers of Passional Equilibrium. 

As we have previously stated, each of the four cardinal passions — 
friendship, love, ambition and parentalism — predominates in some one 
of the four phases of life. The passion of friendship rules in child¬ 
hood, or the first phase. Hence friendship is more frank and is stronger 
in childhood than at any other age. Now, since we are to find in 
each of the four phases of life one of the levers of Passional Equilib¬ 
rium, in the first phase or childhood, we are to seek for that of 
friendship. 

How shall we arouse in children a sentiment of Unitary Friendship 
which shall extend to all mankind, and constitute one of the cardinal 
Pivots of social Unity? The problem is solved by means of the cor¬ 
poration of the Juvenile Legion: it will take upon itself the exercise of 
the only branch of charity that will be required in the Combined Or¬ 
der. In this Order, there will be no more poor to succor, no captives 
to ransom, no slaves to free; it will then only devolve upon children 
to assume the performance of uncleanly and degrading labors — an act 
of charity of great importance, as it will relieve any industrial class 
from the necessity of engaging in them, and shield it as a consequence 
from the contempt that would follow. It will thus secure that brother- 


224 


PASSIONAL EQUILIBRIUM. 


hood, that friendly intimacy between all classes which has been so 
long the dream of philosophy. 

If, in such an order, the masses are polite, honorable in their sen¬ 
timents, and free from want, there can exist on the part of the more 
wealthy neither distrust nor aversion. Hence will arise a friendly en¬ 
thusiasm in all the industrial groups, in which the extremes of fortune 
are necessarily brought in contact. And thus will be realized that 
dream which would make of the whole human race a family of 
brothers. 

This priceless unity would cease from the moment any function 
became despised and degraded ; for example, if there existed in the 
Combined Order hireling shoe-blacks, they, and their children likewise, 
would be considered an inferior class, which would not be admitted to 
an equality in the Series, of which the wealthy are members. 

If such a work was considered ignoble, the Juvenile Legion would 
assume it, and give it dignity. The brushing of boots and shoes in 
the Combined Order, thanks to its covered communications, is a service 
not frequently required; and, besides, every one will have changes of 
shoes at the general depository or in his own rooms. The blacking 
will be peiformed by a group of the Series of pages; but upon emer¬ 
gencies, when the shoes on one’s feet are to be blacked in haste, it will 
be quickly done by a group of young children, aged from seven to 
ten, some of whom are already members of the Legion, and others 
seeking admission to it. These young children perform this service 
with dexterity and dispatch ; and the only return made them will be 
a familiar grasp of the iron chain they wear as a symbol of consecra¬ 
tion to the cause of unitary charity. 

Thus collective friendship, which in philosophic parlance, is styled 
the fraternity of the race , will be secured by the performance of those 
very functions which now create divisions in society, and hatred be¬ 
tween different classes. 

From this sketch we may infer, that if we knew how to employ 
the passions as Nature created them, we should obtain a two-fold ad¬ 
vantage ; whereas the system of repressing the passions, is the source 
of a twofold loss. Let us apply the principle to the subject we are 
now considering—the inclination of children for dirt. 

In the corporation of the Legions, in which this propensity is given 
free range, and ranked as an honorable passion, there result two ad¬ 
vantages ; one direct, the other indirect. 


PASSIONAL EQUILIBRIUM. 


225 


The direct advantage consists in securing the gratuitous perform¬ 
ance of the uncleanly functions to which children are attracted, the 
execution of which is very important, and, at the same time very 
expensive. 

The indirect advantage consists in securing that extreme neatness 
on which children will pride themselves after having exhausted their 
enthusiasm in performing uncleanly and repulsive labors. As soon as 
the Legions shall have put off their gray frocks, or working dresses, 
and resumed their uniforms, they will form a fhost brilliant body of 
juvenile cavalry, not from any gaudy display in dress, but from the 
neatness of their equipments, the fine condition of their horses, and the 
dazzling variety of the colors of their uniforms. 

In the manifestation of the passion by which they are animated, 
there will be a complete contrast. In its direct development, it will 
impel them to fulfill Nature’s design, which is to secure, from attrac¬ 
tion, the performance of all uncleanly Labors. In its counter develop¬ 
ment, it will lead to the opposite result, to extreme cleanliness and 
neatness, growing out of the pride they will feel in being the first 
cavalry of the globe. This contrast, like the refraction and reflection 
of light, always takes place when we allow a passion its natural 
course. 

The same passion, to which no natural field of action is now opened, 
and which is repressed as far as it can be by our present customs, be¬ 
comes doubly prejudicial and offensive in its non-development, and 
in its false development. Let us examine this point. 

By its non-development or suppression, the child is excited to 
secret or open disobedience, and often to rebellion. It repels the au¬ 
thority of parent and teacher, who struggle against Nature without 
being able to conquer her. The child, forbidden the gratification of its 
desires, cherishes them none the less, and satisfies them as soon as it 
is out of sight of its tutor. 

^ In its false development or action, it excites the child to other 
misdeeds. Thwarted in the gratification of its wishes, it becomes mis¬ 
chievous and quarrelsome, destroys things about it, and avoids studies 
in which it would have engaged, if an honorable action had been 
allowed its natural propensities. 

Hence we see, that the repressive system, or the stifling of the at¬ 
tractions, produces a two-fold evil , in place of that twofold good which 
would have resulted from their natural development. 


226 


PASSION A L EQUTLIBRIUM. 


This double action, this double development of the passions is in¬ 
separable from their nature. Let us study, then, the means of develop¬ 
ing instead of repressing them. For three thousand years, trials of 
the repressive system have been made; it is time to take a directly 
opposite course in social polity, and to admit that the Creator of the 
passions knew more, about them than our moralists and legislators; 
that God does well whatever he does ; that if he had believed our pas¬ 
sions pernicious and not susceptible of equilibrium and harmony, he 
would not have created them ; and that human reason, instead of con¬ 
demning these invincible forces, would have acted more wisely to have 
studied their laws and their mode of development 

I have now answered the charge, that I wish to change the pas¬ 
sions ; I have proved that they who really wish to change them are 
the moralists, legislators and philosophers. 

Little by little I shall pay off the debt I owe them. I have pledged 
myself to realize in practice thosq, virtues on which they feast their 
fancies, such, for example, as the brotherhood of the race, and the con¬ 
tempt of riches. These virtues will be reduced to practice by a cor¬ 
poration which will render them available in increasing the wealth of 
society, and in establishing social Concord and unity. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-FOURTH. 


CORPORATION OF THE JUVENILE BAND ; ITS ORGANIZA¬ 
TION. 

Among children as among adults, Nature establishes contrasts of 
character. Without the principle of contrast, there would be no func¬ 
tion for the passion I have termed the Emulative or Dissident, 
nor for the Passional Series, which can be organized only by dissi- 
dences and rivalries, the germ of which lies in contrasts of tastes. 

We are now to study tastes and inclinations, the opposite of those 
of the Juvenile Legions, described in the preceding chapters. There 
would be neither regularity nor perfection in the development of a 
passion, if no scope were allowed for the action of its contrast or coun¬ 
terpoise. 

Thus, however useful the functions of the Juvenile Legions, their 
emulation would double in intensity, if counterbalanced by the con¬ 
trasts which Nature has provided for it. These contrasts may easily 
be discovered ; let us proceed to the inquiry. 

If the majority of boys incline to noise and dirt, the majority of 
young girls, on the other hand, incline to elegance and refinement; 
here is a marked germ of rivalry; we must show how it can be de¬ 
veloped, and usefully employed. 

According to the love of contrast, if boys constitute two-thirds of 
the Legions, girls should constitute two-thirds in the Juvenile Bands, 
and the remaining third should be made up of young boys ; the lat¬ 
ter would be : 

Either those young precocious geniuses, like Pascal, that in infancy 
manifest a decided capacity for study ; or those little effeminate fid- 
lows, that at nine years of age are already inclined to a life of deli¬ 
cacy and ease. 

These two classes of boys will refuse to enter the ranks of the Le¬ 
gions, and will join the rival corps, in which girls are in the majority; 
a corps which is doubtless highly useful, but which does not fulfill a 
cardinal function in passional equilibrium. 




228 


THE JUVENILE BAND. 


Though the Juvenile Bands are composed of children between nine 
and fifteen years of age. they will be so polite and refined in their 
manners, that the boys belonging to them will defer to the lead of the 
girls; either because the girls will be in a majority of two to one, or 
because the dominant taste and law of the corporation will be extreme 
politeness—a tone of manners directly the reverse of that of the Le¬ 
gions 5 the latter will be surpassed by the Bands in the arts and sci¬ 
ences and various branches of industry. 

This rivalry will be sufficient to create in the Little Bands a tone 
of manners quite the oppo.-ite of that prevailing in the Legions. The 
difference of manners between the two corps will resemble that exist¬ 
ing at present between the military and civilians. The contrast be¬ 
tween these will be even more striking. 

In short, the Juvenile Bands will be a group of children as refined 
and polite as are in the present order the most brilliant circles of our 
great capitals; but with this refinement will be connected a more es¬ 
timable quality, the desire to excel in the arts and sciences, especially 
in agriculture, which is the first of the arts. 

In distributing characters, the Creator has observed a fundamental 
rule, classing them by stroruj or major, and by mild or minor shades; 
this distinction reigns throughout Nature — in musical tones which vary 
from grave to sharp; in colors, from dark to light, and so throughout 
the entire system of creation. 

This contrast which holds good in childhood as well as at other 
periods of life, will be sufficient to enrol half of the Lyceans and Gym- 
nasians in the Bands, whose services are much less arduous than those 
of the Legions. 

I have observed that this half consists of a contrast in numbers and 
sex, as well as in character ; namely, in the Legions, two-thirds boys; 
in the Bands, two-thirds girls. 

If one of these corporations shines in the conquest of material ob¬ 
stacles ; the other will excel in spiritual conquests. Thus the Bands 
will excel in studies and in the exercise of the arts and of industry. 
They will be generally more industrious, except in certain functions, 
such as equestrian exercises, the management of horses and dogs, hunt¬ 
ing and fishing, which are more particularly the employment of the 
Legions ; but those animals, the care of which demands skill and pa¬ 
tience, such as the zebra and beaver among quadrupeds, and the bee 
and silk-worm among insects, will be assigned to the Bands, who will 


THE JUVENILE BAND. 


229 


pride themselves on industrial refinement. This subject, which belongs 
to functions, will be treated in the following chapter. 

As to costumes, the dress of the Bands will be graceful and roman¬ 
tic, and may be modeled after the ancient or modern style, being va¬ 
ried in different Associations. If the Band of one adopts the costume 
of the Troubadours, that of another in the neighborhood may assume 
the Athenian, and so with other Bands. 

This variety is unlike that of the Legions; their uniforms are the 
same throughout an entire province, but the colors of each individual 
will vary; so that every Legion in evolutions will display as great a 
variety of colors as a square of tulips, in which every bed is unlike 
its fellow. 

The Juvenile Bands will have their ponies like the Legions; and 
in evolutions, will adopt a system of manoeuvres in contrast with that 
of the latter. 

In speaking of the physical distinctions of the two corporations, I 
must not forget differences of temperament. Although the Legions and 
the Bands retire to rest at nearly the same hour, the Bands rise the 
later of the two in the morning, and do not begin their labors before 
four o’clock. It will be unnecessary for them to rise earlier; they 
have little or nothing to do with the care of the larger domestic ani¬ 
mals. Their care will be rather that of animals which are difficult to 
raise, such as doves, bees and the like, which do not require early 
morning labors. 

-This difference'of an hour in the time allotted for sleep, is not alto¬ 
gether arbitrary; it depends upon differences of temperament. Chil¬ 
dren that are physically less disposed to activity, such as those of 
phlegmatic and nervous temperaments, require more sleep, and will 
naturally join the Bands ; those of sanguine and bilious temperaments 
will be more apt to unite with the Legions. 

As the female sex furnishes two-thirds of the members of the Little 
Bands, their predominating tastes will be feminine, among others that 
of dress ; and this, too. is a passion which the Series will turn to ac¬ 
count, as it does that of uncleanliness. 

"VVe reproach women for their love of ribbons, laces and other fine¬ 
ry; and little girls, for loving dolls more than work. This defect, if 
it be one, will be predominant among the Little Bands, who will be 
passionately fond of dress. It will be perceived that this passion for 
dress, which is often so pernicious in the Civilized Order, will become 
21 


230 


THE JUVENILE BAND. 


the germ of industrial emulation in the Series, when it is exercised 
collectively in attiring the whole corporation, both males and females. 

“ Of what use,” I hear the moralists and utilitarians exclaim, “ are 
these bodies of children, so elegantly attired, so expensively fitted out ? 
What use all this dress and display ? It will not make wheat 
grow; would it not be better to give children a practical and moral 
education, to mould them to the simple habits which sound morality 
inculcates? ” 

Thus reason the moralists and philosophers, who, with their utili¬ 
tarian theories, succeed only in repressing or smothering the natural 
instincts of children, giving to the passions a false development, which 
in adult age engenders excesses and vices of every kind. 

The love of dress among the children of the Combined Order, will 
lead to corporate sympathies, that is, to sentiments of fraternity and 
equality. If the Little Bands are gaily attired, it will be at their own 
expense, and not at that of others. Now, the daughter of a wealthy 
father, is finely dressed at the expense of a hundred poor working 
men whom he has despoiled or oppressed; but in the Combined Or¬ 
der, she will dress from the fruit of her own industry; and if she 
makes use of a part of her dividends, accumulated by economy, it will 
only be to aid in dressing her companions, and in making them par¬ 
takers of her own happiness. To censure practices so honorable, be¬ 
fore knowing to what good results they may lead, is to condemp those 
virtues which are now so highly praised in theory. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-FIFTH. 


SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE JUVENILE BANDS: COMPOUND 
ERROR IN REGARD TO THE CAPACITY OF WOMAN. 

We will now apply to the problem of Passional Equilibrium the 
law of Counterpoise , so highly extolled by our modern theorists. To 
establish Passional Equilibrium, we must employ contrasts; it is from 
contrasts of the passions, and the rivalries to which they give rise, 
that unity of action is to result. We shall assign, then, to the Juvenile 
Bands functions which, although the opposite of those of the Legions, 
will tend nevertheless to the same end. 

The Legions attain the Beautiful by means of the Good. 

The Bauds attain the Good by means of the Beautiful. 

This point will be further considered at the conclusion of this chap¬ 
ter, where its truth will be demonstrated. 

The greater the virtues and civic devotion by which the Legions 
are distinguished, the more numerous should be the points in which 
the rival corporation should seek to equal them in distinction. It is 
an interesting problem in moral equilibrium to determine by what 
means the Juvenile Bands shall be able to attain equal honor with 
their competitors, so distinguished by their religious zeal in the per¬ 
formance of all kinds of repulsive functions ? 

Our inquiries into the solution of this problem must have a primary 
reference to the passions of the female sex, since upon them falls the 
burden of the contest: the Legions fill their ranks mostly from boys; 
the majority of the Bands must consist of girls, who constitute two- 
thirds of this corps; in our speculations, then, we must have regard to 
the ruling passion in girls, which evidently is the love of ornament 
AND DRESS. 

But how can we draw from such a source of frivolity a counterpoise 
to great virtues, like the devotion of the Legions ? A moralist would 
say that the love of ornament and dress can only be a source of cor¬ 
ruption. On the contrary we shall show that the passion for dress 


232 


THE JUVENILE BAND. 


and finery, which is now foolishly occupied with trifles, will become, 
when rightly directed, a second fount of social concord and unity. 

A methodical treatment of the subject would demonstrate that the 
love of elegance and dress would be a potdnt source of wealth, pro¬ 
vided the passion is raised from a simple to a compound mode of de¬ 
velopment, and is rendered a collective impulse instead of an individ¬ 
ual one. But such theoretic discussions would lead me too far; I 
must, therefore, be brief, and describe the functions only of the Juve¬ 
nile Bands. 

This corporation is to be the conservator of what may be styled 
Social Charm; this is apparently a less brilliant function than that of 
guardians of Social Honor , assigned to the Legions; we shall see, 
however, that the functions of the former are hardly less valuable than 
those of the latter; and when we can apply usefully that love of dress 
and ornament, which characterizes young girls, we shall obtain as a 
result the four following singular advantages: 

1. Industrial refinement. 3. Compound instruction. 

2. The reign of good taste. 4. Compound friendship. 

W. Unity of manners. 

The combination of these several advantages will give rise to the 
reign of Social Charm or elegance and refineihent in manners, excit¬ 
ing enthusiasm in the Association for itself and for its industry, and a 
kind regard for strangers that visit it. We can judge of these results 
after a description of the functions of the corporation. 

I have said that the Juvenile Bands are entrusted with the general 
supervision of the vegetable kingdom. Whoever breaks a branch from 
a tree, gathers fruit or flowers w’ben there is no need, negligently 
treads upon a plant, is cited before their Senate, which tries such cases 
in accordance with a penal code framed for such delinquencies, as the 
Council of the Legions tries offences against animals. 

As the arbiters of good taste and industrial refinement, and as 
guardians of the vegetable realm, they will take especial care of flowers, 
which are a source of charm and refinement. They will have the same 
care over the lawns and flower gardens that is exercised by the Le¬ 
gions over the highways. . Flowers will be their passion; they will 
take charge of all floral exhibitions, and the adorning of the altars and 
the public halls. 

This passion may excite the censure of our utilitarians, who will 
declare flowers altogether useless. This is a gross error. Through the 


THE JUVENILE BAND. 


233 


passion for flowers, Nature aims to attract the female sex to agricul¬ 
ture ; for the transition is slight from the flower to the vegetable gar¬ 
den, and to the greenhouses and orchards. But at first the culture of 
flowers will be for young girls an excellent means of instruction and 
of acquiring agricultural skill; and will gradually interest them in 
other branches of agriculture. 

To attain this end, the Juvenile Bands will be led to consider the 
perfection of flowers a point of honor for their corporation; they will 
offer premiums for success in their cultivation, and will establish in 
each Association a school of floral art. 

The Combined Order, in its system of education, will encourage 
the cultivation of both kinds of flowers — the natural and the intellec¬ 
tual— convinced that in the system of Nature, unity of plan pervades 
the whole; and that if no useful function can be discovered for the 
passion for flowers that charm the eye, rendering it an incentive to 
agriculture, there can be no useful function for the flowers of the in¬ 
tellect ; that the love of the good can not be developed by the love 
of the beautiful. 

We shall, however, obtain this result from a band of young girls, 
animated with a collective , not an individual , passion of ornament and 
dress. Its inclination to collective display and elegance, encouraged at 
the outset in matters which may seem frivolous, such as dress and 
flowers, will soon extend to the fine arts, and at last to industry and 
the sciences. ( Compound instruction, and the development of a love for 
the good and the beautiful conjointly.) 

As one of the effects of the Serial system is to unite all branches 
of industry, and so to connect them in their mutual relations that one 
shall necessarily lead to another, it is a matter of little importance 
that a part of the children develop a passion for labors commonly 
deemed frivolous; these trifling pursuits will prepare the way for 
those of a useful character. 

In order to secure a full development of industrial talent, a part 
of the children of an Association should be exercised in a branch of 
the arts which aims at elegance and grace. This will give a charm 
to industry and increase the attraction for it. The Juvenile Bands, 
then, will devote themselves to the embellishment of the palace and 
the domain of the Association ; and in addition as conservators of so¬ 
cial charm, of good taste and unity of manners, they will exercise a 
function similar to that of the French Academy and the Crusca; 


234 


THE JUVENILE BAND. 


namely, the correction of the use of bad language and of faulty pro¬ 
nunciation. 

In the Combined Order, purity of language will be considered a 
unitary grace ; and in this matter, every member of the Juvenile Bands 
will be authorized to act the part of the Athenian woman, who rallied 
Theophrastus for his bad pronunciation. The Senate of the Bands has 
not only the supervision of the language of children, but the right of 
criticising adults themselves by written communications; it will make 
out a list of the errors in grammar or pronunciation to which any 
member of the Association is addicted, and send him a copy of them, 
signed by the presiding officer of the body, with a recommendation to 
correct them. 

But will they have attained sufficient knowledge of letters to perform 
so difficult a task ? Doubtless this right of criticism would not be granted 
them, except to incite them to study. Every branch of industry needs 
its incentive; now, the right of criticism and the honor of the corpora¬ 
tion are already a two-fold incentive. 

The distinction attached to these various functions will be needed 
to attract young boys of a studious turn to join Juvenile Bands and 
to counterbalance the influence of the rival corporation. This literary 
distinction of the Bands, their supervision of good manners, will pro¬ 
duce a further good result; they will give rise to corporate pride , and 
as a consequence, to compound friendship, or that which extends 
from each member to the entire body. This sentiment is quite un¬ 
known in the Civilized Order, in which women generally criticise their 
own sex, are acquainted only .with simple or individual friendship, and 
are penetrated with a selfish love of ostentation, prizing display only 
so far as their poorer neighbors are debarred from it. 

The Juvenile Bands are enemies of this anti-social vanity; stimu¬ 
lated by the noble examples of virtue and charity, exhibited by the 
Legions, the}’ - strive to equal them so far as their functions will allow. 
They occupy themselves with elegance and ornament only in a collect¬ 
ive capacity, and for the general credit of the Association. A rich ap- 
plicantj upon her admission, will present some ornament to her divi¬ 
sion, and if her ineaus are sufficient, to the whole Band. She would 
be condemned, if she were suspected of being actuated by a contracted 
or mercenary spirit. 

Like the Legions, the Bands have the privilege of initiating certain 
ceremonies and enterprises. Whenever works of pleasure and elegance 


THE JUVENILE BAND. 


235 


are undertaken, such as the preparation of ornaments for a Series, for 
a temple or its ritual, for halls of industry or the Opera, the Juvenile 
Bands will take the lead, and open the work. 

They will rarely appear at the industrial armies; but when they 
do, it will be in the capacity of attendants of the Legions, who are 
allowed the privilege of opening and closing enterprises in which 
strength is required, such as the placing of the key-stone of an arch, 
after having already laid its corner-stone. 

If the Combined Order, by granting certain honorable distinctions, 
has the skill to encourage the Legions to engage in repulsive labors, 
it must by other distinctions attract the Juvenile Bands to works of 
skill and taste, particularly in literature, the arts, and delicate handi¬ 
craft ; as this corporation is in great part composed of females, it 
ought, according to the natural order of things, to have a fondness 
for all mental and material labors which do not require physical 
strength. 

Besides, in the Combined Order, study will be a much more easy 
pursuit than in the present order; this will be the result of unitary 
methods of instruction; in addition to the advantages derived from 
these methods, will be the two which spring from the rivalries of the 
Series, and the introduction of the science of universal analogy. 

We already begin to discern the error which prevails in regard to 
woman’s capacity; her genius has been very falsely estimated by our 
analysists, who have been unable to appreciate either the woman or 
the child. 

As regards woman’s capacity for study, they have fallen into a 
four-fold error. First, they have overlooked the principle of compound 
adornment , internal or external. 

1. The internal compound ; beauty of the body, separate from ex¬ 
ternal vesture; this will be treated in the chapter devoted to integral 
gymnastics. 

2. Compound external , or the adorning of both body and mind, 
their simultaneous culture. We ought not only to encourage the pas¬ 
sion for dress and ornament in women, but seek to make it contribute 
to the adorning of the mind by connecting it with the culture of the 
arts and sciences; and, on the ground of the necessity of establishing 
compound unitary elegance , should seek to make the adorning of the 
body and the mind keep pace with each other. 

To these two oversights, two others are to be added: 


236 


THE JUVENILE BAND. 


3. They have been ignorant of the fact, that this unitary elegance 
should be collective and not individual; and that it can produce be¬ 
neficent results only as applied to masses, composed of persons who, 
possessing unequal fortunes, are still united by corporate sympathy. 

4. Lastly, woman in this new career—with the three conditions 
above mentioned—would still be deprived of adequate incentives to 
action, unless stimulated by the rivalry of the other sex. 

If these four conditions, however, are observed, women will excel 
in those various arts and sciences from which the male sex would now 
exclude them. The true germ of this possible perfection in the devel¬ 
opment of woman’s nature is to be found in the love of elegance and 
refinement, which is the incentive to all those works of collective em¬ 
bellishment and artistic refinement in which she will excel. The error 
committed in regard to the capacity of woman, then, is four-fold, based 
on a complete ignorance, analytical and synthetical, of her nature and 
social destiny. 

Thus will be confounded that insulting and vandal philosophy, 
which, with all its pompous pretensions to be the disseminator of intel¬ 
ligence, would condemn to ignorance one half of the human species, 
by compelling woman to stultify herself in the petty and menial labors 
of the isolated household, where her natural faculties find no scope for 
expansion. 

The Combined Order, on the contrary, pursuing an opposite policy, 
would make the female the counterpoise and not the servant of 
the male sex; this equilibrium will be established even in childhood 
by means of the corporation of the Juvenile Bands. 

To estimate the worth of their rivalry, we must recollect that the 
system of the Industrial Series can only be sustained and perfected by 
a refined development of tastes which can appreciate distinctions in 
species, varieties, tenuities, etc. 

To accustom the young very early to these distinctions, and to a 
classification of tastes, those children who have a love for works of a 
delicate and fancy nature, must have a place in the Series; in each 
branch of industry, a graduated scale of coarser and finer works must 
be established, which will be a guaranty of industrial perfection. 

Among children of the male sex, there is very little manifestation 
of this passion for delicate labors. Little boys are generally inclined 
to be rash and impetuous; their appropriate place is in the ranks of 
the Legions, whereas young girls are better suited to those rivalries of 


TIIE JUVENILE BAND. 


237 


the Series, where delicate criticism is needed ; and of which those are 
especially capable who have a taste for neatness and elegance in dress. 
Like artists, they can see imperfections, and shocking improprieties, 
where an ordinary eye would discover no defect; and since nature 
has endowed young girls with tastes of this kind, they should be 
developed and turned to account. 

Such a cultivation of refined tastes is the function of the Juvenile 
Bands; they possess a faculty for the perception of delicate shades 
and varieties, which creates divisions, and gives rise to as many groups 
as there are varieties. This faculty is to be found in those children 
only who, having a passion for ornament and elegance in dress,, are 
capable, as a consequence, of discerning artistic refinement in all those 
branches of industry in which they engage. 

It is for the Juvenile Bands to inspire the whole body of children 
with that taste for graduated and contrasted shades or varieties, with¬ 
out which it would be impossible to transcend the lower degrees of 
skill in agriculture and the arts, or create higher incentives to indus¬ 
try. Now, if the Association is to feel a pride and enthusiasm for it¬ 
self and its works, it should provide itself with whatever will invest it 
w'ith charms and attractions, such as flowers and elegant costumes, 
and consider the care of the one, and attention to the other, as open¬ 
ing the w r ay from the beautiful to the good, — from the culture of the 
arts to the study of the sciences. I have explained this principle in 
the chapter on the Opera. 

To conclude this subject of the functions of the two corporations 
we are describing, and the services which they will render to indus¬ 
try, let me say that the Legions accomplish in a negative sense, what 
the Bands perform in a positive. The former remove the obstacles to 
harmony ; they extinguish the germs of discord, and of that spirit of 
caste w'hich might spring from repulsive labors. The latter create 
positive attractions by their ability to organize industrial emulation 
based on minute differences of quality. Both corporations are highly 
useful; there can be no equilibrium without the opposition of forces. 

Hence the educational system of the Combined Order, in its third 
Phase, finds means to establish equilibrium between opposite impulses 
— the taste for uncleanliness on the one hand, and for elegance and 
display on the other —both of which are condemned by received au¬ 
thorities in the art of education. Have these worthy authorities any 
knowledge on the subject of Passional equilibrium ? If they had, could 
21 * 


238 


TI1E JUVENILE BAND. 


they have failed to observe, that every one of the passions in the Civ¬ 
ilized order is in a false position, working palpably against its own in¬ 
terests, like the charmed bird that flies headlong into the open mouth 
of the serpent ? 

God has created no passion without providing for it a counterpoise 
and a means of equilibrium. I have concisely stated the,effect of such 
a cotinterpoise in the third Phase of education by saying that, 

The Legions attain the beautiful by means of the good; 

The Bands attain the good by means of the beautiful. 

This contrasted action is a universal law of Nature. For through¬ 
out her whole system we find a balancing of forces by movements di¬ 
rect and inverse, by progression and retrogression, by refraction and 
reflection, by major and minor modes, by centripetal and centrifugal 
forces, etc. There is everywhere this direct and inverse action — a 
principle absolutely unknown in the institutions of Civilization, which 
would train children according to simplistic methods, and yet mould 
them to different systems of morality, to conform to the prejudices of 
different castes and classes. 

In place of this incongruous and simplistic method, the Combined 
Order adopts the contrasted or dualized system, and, in addition, a 
complete scale in the modes of instruction. It is of no consequence 
what method the child prefers, provided that at eighteen or twenty 
years of age, when the education of the Combined Order is completed, 
the youth of both sexes shall have been so cultured as to appreciate 
both the beautiful and the good, the useful and the agreeable — a re¬ 
sult impossible to be attained by the present system of instruction. 
By subjecting the young to one simple and uniform system, it necessarily 
fails with that half to which it is unsuited, and, as a consequence 
with the other half, which, destitute of the stimulus of competition, 
will only advance at a slow pace, compared with the progress it might 
make, if aided by the natural method. 

The reader will derive no small advantage from the comparison 
here sketched between the two Juvenile Corporations, if he has com¬ 
prehended and can fix in his memory the following theorem : 

That the education of the Combined Oilier or the equilibrated sys¬ 
tem, in order to be unitary , must be compound and bi-compound in 
its action ; that it must tend simidtaneously to the good and the beau¬ 
tiful, but by contrasted methods, concurrently employed, and lift to the 
free choice of the child — to the demand of Attraction. 


DEPKECIATION OF THE FEMALE SEX. 


239 


That every deviation from this principle produces in the child a 
violation and consequent smothering of some of its attractions ; the re¬ 
sult is that instead of attaining to compound Good by a balanced de¬ 
velopment — direct and indirect — of its instincts, it falls into compound 
Evil from non-development, or false development. 

A very novel doctrine is this — one'wholly incompatible with our 
present theories — which, in education as in every branch of social art, 
are miserably incomplete or one-sided, and opposed to Nature. To 
demonstrate this truth in a compound or unitary mode, let us apply 
it, in the note which follows, to another order of social questions. 


NOTE. 

TENDENCY OF THE PHILOSOPHERS AND MORALISTS, PARTICULARLY AMONG 
THE FRENCH, TO UNDERVALUE AND DEGRADE THE FEMALE SEX. 

I know not on what grounds the French base their claim to the 
distinction of being the gallant nation; it seems to me as desti¬ 
tute of foundation as the epithets “ Beautiful France ” and u The Great 
Nation.” But on this latter point we will not speak at present. 

How happens it that the French, who are so versatile in their laws 
and constitutions, have adhered steadily to but a single one, that which 
excludes women from the throne ? The Salic Law has maintained its 
ground under all dynasties. Nowhere is there more constancy and 
more unanimity than among the French to subordinate that sex which 
they pretend to houor so highly. 

There is no nation among which women are so much deceived by 
lovers, so frequently cajoled by promises of marriage and excuses for 
delays, where they are more readily abandoned when enciente, or for¬ 
gotten when love has ceased. With such characteristics the French 
call themselves gallant! They are in truth intriguing and selfish in 
love, very skillful in seduction, and very deceitful after success. 

No people has, in the drama, more reproached women who have 
manifested a passion for study. Does this show a knowledge of Na¬ 
ture ? Are not women destined to exhibit in literature and the arts 
the same capacity they have exhibited on the throne, when, from the 
days of Semiramis to Catherine, there have been seven great queens 
to one of inferior capacity , while among kings, seven have been incapa¬ 
ble, to one that has been great ? 

The same rule would hold good in literature and the arts \ the female 



240 


DEPRECIATION OF TIIE FEMALE SEX. 


sex will carry off the palm in these departments, when, in the Com¬ 
bined Order, education shall have restored woman to the use of her 
faculties, smothered by a social system which engrosses her in the 
complicated functions of our isolated households. 

I do not deny that, in the present state of society, it may be ne¬ 
cessary to stifle in women the desire of distinction, their inclination to 
great deeds, their love of rank. Having, in Civilization, as a general 
rule no higher function than that of housekeeper, it is well that their 
education should stultify their intellects, and make them fit for such 
menial occupations. In the same way, to fit the slave for his degraded 
condition, he is forbidden the studies which would render him sen¬ 
sible of his abject state. According to the precepts of Aristotle, who 
could not see the propriety of moral worth in a slave, he is to be de¬ 
nied the practice of the virtues. In like manner, there are many vir¬ 
tues which philosophy judges unsuitable to woman. 

A husband will maintain that the demands of the household require 
the wife to be confined to the management of domestic affairs, while 
he gives his attention to business abroad. Such arguments are not ap¬ 
plicable to the Combined Order, where household labors, being simpli¬ 
fied by general. combination, will require but one-eighth of the women 
now employed in them. There will be no necessity then of degrading 
the sex by a menial education; young girls may be inspired with a 
love of distinction which will be at once a path to fortune and to re¬ 
nown, because they will share in the magnificent rewards which the 
Combined Order will bestow upon success in science and the arts. 

Moreover, if the rivalry of the sexes is well established, the femi¬ 
nine Series will wish to possess the knowledge requisite to the prose¬ 
cution of their functions, to join theory Avith practice, even in labors 
connected with the kitchen and laundry. In washing, for example, 
they would desire the head of the Series to have a chemical knowl¬ 
edge of the nature of soaps and lies, and their effects in cleansing; 
the Series would consider themselves degraded, if they were constantly 
liable to mistakes for want of knowledge in these matters, and obliged 
to appeal to men whenever a difficulty arose. 

The male sex among us invades nearly all the proper avocations 
of woman, depriving her even of the more profitable branches of 
needlework. This monstrous perversion will cease as soon as free 
scope, given to Attraction, shall assign to each sex its natural sphere 
of action. Then all the prevalent prejudices in regard to the capacity 


DEPRECIATION OF TIIE FEAT ALE SEX. 


241 


of woman will vanish; and in the primary schools of the Combined 
Order, there will be a greater attendance of girls than boys. 

If it were true, according to the doctrines of Mohammed and some 
modern philosophers, that woman is destined only to serve the plea¬ 
sure of man, or to be a domestic drudge, the law of emulation between 
natural opposites or the law of emulative contrasts, which is the basis 
of the system of passional equilibrium, would be disregarded, both in 
social relations and in education ! On what could emulation be based, 
if boys did not see themselves excelled by girls of their own age in 
different avocations — in the fine arts, for example ? Otherwise it would 
be impossible to create in the male sex a sentiment of politeness and 
deference for woman. This respect for the sex should exist among 
one-half of the children, if for no other reason than to conceal from 
them the real motives of the courtesy which they see prevailing among 
adults. 

Women should, from childhood up, secure respect by incontestible 
merit. But in what shall this merit consist ? In the art of skimming 
the pot ? In the Combined Order, that function will be performed by 
men rather than women. Much physical strength will be requisite to 
manage the great caldrons which will be used in the kitchens of an 
Association, each holding at least a hundred pounds of beef. The most 
that young girls or women can do will be to manage the pots con¬ 
taining delicate dishes, the preparation of which requires great care; 
but men will be required to attend to the large earthen caldrons, 
hung in iron frames and moved by pullies. 

The ambition of girls, then, between the ages of nine and fifteen, 
will not be limited to mastering the art of making the pot boil ; they 
will not, however, neglect this function, and will exercise it even with 
skill, but their greatest distinction will spring from the culture of the 
arts and sciences, which they will early learn to* prosecute jointly with 
the light branches of agriculture and manufactures. 

Without this contrast of merit between the sexes from childhood up, 
there would be no counterpoise to the natural rudeness of boys and 
their inclination to despise the other sex. Girls would be entirely dis¬ 
couraged, and boys left without the stimulus of emulation, if there 
were not provided for each sex in childhood avocations in which dis¬ 
tinction could be attained, and claims to the respect of its natural 
rival set up. 

This rivalry is the true destiny of the female sex. The picture 


242 


DEPRECIATION OF THE FEMALE SEX. 


given above of the Juvenile Bands is a true mirror of its future emi¬ 
nence, and of the important part which it is to perform even in child¬ 
hood, when Nature shall have resumed her sway. I have not spoken 
yet of the position of the sex in adult years, but simply of its general 
relation to the other. 

Far from suspecting that woman was destined to attain distinction 
even in childhood in industry, science, the arts and the social virtues, 
man has thought only of preparing her to submit to the marriage 
yoke in mercenary unions. I admit that the Civilized Order is obliged 
to adopt such an abject policy 5 it is advocated with more insidious¬ 
ness in France than elsewhere, and upheld by sophisms which are pro¬ 
mulgated to divert women from the paths of distinction. 

In childhood, they are made slaves by moral teachings; in adult 
years they are impelled to coquetry, and a display of foolish pride by 
constant flattery of their transient charms ; they are encouraged to 
employ cunning, and to make conquests of the other sex; their frivol¬ 
ity is stimulated by extravagant praise; as when Diderot said, that 
in writing to a lady, “the pen should be dipped in the rainbow’s hues, 
and the sheet sanded with the dust of the butterfly’s wing.” 

What is the result of such fulsome flattery ? Both sexes are duped 
by it; for if the social destiny of woman be not discovered, that of 
man will remain an enigma. If an escape from the Civilized Order is 
forbidden one of the sexes, it will be equally so to the other. There 
are several issues from this social abyss, which could have been dis¬ 
covered by a study of the social destiny of woman. 

In thus doing justice to the weaker sex, I am by no means aiming 
to gain her approval. There is nothing to be gained in praising a 
slave; for the slave respects only him who is his master; and this is 
but too generally the character of women in the Civilized Order, who 
are indifferent to their-bondage, and submit passively to a system which 
consigns them to the isolation and drudgery of our petty households. 

The Turks teach women that they have no souls , and are unworthy 
to enter paradise. The French would persuade them that they have no 
intellects , and are not made to engage in mental labors, and to tread 
the paths of art and science. 

It is the same doctrine in both cases, expressed in different terms; 
in the East rudely expressed; in the West politely uttered, though 
concealed under the mask of gallantry to hide the selfishness of the 
stronger sex in its monopoly of power and distinction. 


DEPRECIATION OF TIIE FEMALE SEX. 


243 


Woman is degraded and made to believe that Nature destined her 
exclusively to menial domestic labors, which in the Combined Order 
will be so abridged as to be performed without oppression to either sex. 

Madams Sevignd and de Staei.were not mere housekeepers, skim¬ 
mers of pots , any more than were Elizabeth and Catherine. In such 
women, we catch a glimpse of the destiny of the weaker sex, and of 
those powers of mind which it will'exercise with complete success, as 
soon as it shall be restored to its natural position, which is not that 
of the servant, but of the rival of man; not that of attending to 
petty or menial domestic labors, but of confounding, as they will in 
Association, the idle doctrines of the philosophers and moralists in 
defense of incoherent industry, the isolated household and the degra¬ 
dation of woman. 

To pay them off, the sex which they have considered as fit> only 
to be the domestic servant of man, will demonstrate the futility of all 
their theories, and show that, after thirty centuries of theorizing, they 
have failed entirely in the study of man, and promulgated doctrines 
which have tended only to pervert and degrade woman and thwart 
the development of the child, while at the same time, they have con¬ 
vulsed the social world with their visionary doctrines, which have pro¬ 
duced no other result than to enslave entirely one sex, and the great 
majority of the other. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-SIXTH. 


EDUCATION IN ITS FINAL PHASE : THE YESTALIC BODY. 

The Passion, which is especially in rebellion against our moral 
theories — Love—now enters upon the scene, taking possession of the 
young of sixteen and upwards, and adding one more to the number 
of impulses which the educational system of the Combined Order must 
direct and develop harmoniously. 

How bend this passion to the requirements of social harmony ? 
How induce the young whom it animates to comply from attraction 
with the demands of good morals, general concord and social unity, 
and to devote themselves with increased zeal to industry and studies ? 

In the preceding chapters, I have shown the inability of our pres¬ 
ent methods to employ usefully any of the natural instincts and attrac¬ 
tions of the child. We have seen how many of the instincts, now con¬ 
demned, are of high importance in Industry and social Harmony. We 
may presume from these examples, that the Natural Method of Edu¬ 
cation must also possess means for employing usefully the passion of 
Love, and that the action of the passion has been so determined as to 
be adapted to the requirements of social Unity. All study of a system 
for the judicious regulation of the development of Love, has been dis¬ 
carded upon the ground that the passion is merely a capricious im¬ 
pulse. But capricious or not, it is an impulse, the effects of which 
God must have precalculated and coordinated to a plan of general 
harmony and social unity. What we have to do is to discover this 
plan, and determine the place and function of Love in it. 

As capricious and ungovernable as the passion may appear, it is 
not more difficult to harmonize than ambition or any other of the 
springs of action implanted in the human soul. We must understand, 
however, the complete .scale of its accords and its modes of develop¬ 
ment, and calculate in full the equilibria} to be applied to it. I will 
not here enter into any explanation of this subject; it is a labyrinth 
that would confuse the reader, and would not be understood. In en- 


TIIE YESTALIC BODY. 


245 


tering upbn a study of the passions, we must avoid intricate, theoreti¬ 
cal details. We must first observe the practical working of the pas¬ 
sional forces in the associative mechanism, their functions in its various 
corporations, and their employment in industry. After familiarizing 
ourselves with the Institutions of this new Order, and the action of 
the passions in them, we shall be able to study them theoretically, to 
analyze their impulses, the counterpoises to be applied to them, and 
the general laws that govern them. The Vestalic Body will enable us 
to observe one phase in the development of the passion of Love. 

The transition to the age of Love, the crisis of puberty, offers a 
delicate and difficult problem for solution in the education of Asso¬ 
ciation — a problem on which our present methods fail entirely; they 
resort merely to repressive methods, without aiming at all to give a 
natural direction, a harmonic development to the passion. The result 
is that disorders and conflicts take place, that dissimulation and hy¬ 
pocrisy are practiced — the whole hidden, as are so many of the pas¬ 
sional perversions of Civilization, under a veil of apparent order. 

Instead of these disorders, the result of the present repressive sys¬ 
tem of the passions, the policy of Association in relation to Love will 
be — while giving to the passion a free and natural development — to 
secure the following results : 

1 . Increased zeal for Industry. 

2. Emulation between the sexes for the maintenance of good 
morals. 

3. Recompense for real virtues. 

4. The employment of these virtues to promote the cause of social 
unity, with which they have, in Civilization, no connection. 

To secure these ends, the Vestalic Body will be organized, the in¬ 
fluence of which will be to increase, on the part of the young, devo¬ 
tion to useful Industry and to the cause of social Unity. 

This Institution and all others of the Combined Order, must be 
based upon natural instincts in the human ’ heart, upon true and nor¬ 
mal developments of the passions ; if not, they will rest on no solid 
foundation, and will have no real value. They will be merely arbi¬ 
trary and artificial institutions, like those of Civilization, evolved from 
the imagination of its moralists and legislators. 

All young girls, on arriving at the age of puberty, will enter the 
Vestalic Body, the statutes of which require entire chastity, and will 
remain in it generally to the age of from eighteen to twenty. Those who 


246 


THE YESTALIC BODY. 


leave it at seventeen or eighteen, will enter the Hymenial Body. These 
usages will not, however, be established till the second generation has 
grown up in the Combined Order, that is, till after a lapse of thirty 
or forty years. At that epoch, any innovations which are made in the 
laws that govern the relations of the sexes, will take place only with 
the concurrence of parents and others interested in the maintenance 
of good morals. All legislation of the minor order, that is, relating to 
the interests of Love and Parentalism, will be under the direction of 
Woman. The most capable women will frame the laws that govern 
these interests. 

It will require various motives tq induce the young, entering the 
Yestalic Body, to continue in it during its full term ; such motives, 
the Combined Order will hold out. It will bestow on this Body as 
many honors as on that of the Legions, precedingly described. 

One of the foundations on which the Yestalic Institution will rest, 
is that want in the human heart of idealizing the object loved. Each 
one of the four cardinal Affections — friendship, love, ambition and 
parentalism — tends to idealize, and, as a consequence, to idolize the 
object of its affection ; the mother idolizes a favorite child; the infe¬ 
rior idolizes the superior who inspires veneration ; but this idealizing 
tendency is the strongest in Love; it excites the highest enthusiasm 
for moral beauty and excellence. The lustre of the Vestals will be 
based upon this want in the human heart— the want of an object to 
idealize. Nothing is better calculated to command admiration than a 
body of young girls from sixteen to eighteen, who, to beauty and 
chastity, add devotion to useful industry and to studies. 

The Romans, notwithstanding their cruelty to the Vestals that broke 
their vows, had a happy idea in making of these priestesses an object 
of public idolatry, a class intermediate between man and the Deity. 
The Combined Order will confide to them, as did that people, the care 
of the Sacred Fire ; not a material fire, however, as of old, but a truly 
sacred fire, that of the four cardinal virtues — the virtues that should 
exist in the relations to which Friendship, honorable Ambition, Love 
and the Family Sentiment give rise. The development of these cardi¬ 
nal virtues will be the true means of establishing harmony in the so¬ 
cial relations of mankind. 

Up to the present time, we have been able to admire in the works 
of man the material Beautiful only. For the first time, we shall be¬ 
hold the spiritual or passional Beautiful, behold God in person, and 


TIIE VESTALIC BODY. 


247 


in all his wisdom, for what is the spirit, the wisdom of God but the 
harmony of the twelve passions, their complete development without 
any conflict, and in accord as perfect as that of an excellent orchestra ? 
This beautiful result can alone give to mortals an idea of the power 
and wisdom of God. 

We can comprehend his material wisdom, which shines forth in the 
harmonies of the celestial spheres, and in the organic mechanism of all 
created things; but of his political and social wisdom, we have no 
idea. We see an inverted image of it in the demoniac spirit that reigns 
in our incoherent societies, which reek with fraud, injustice and oppres¬ 
sion, and are marked with unnumbered forms of misery. We shall see 
the spirit of God only in the Passional Series, in their unity and their 
virtues, and the charm with which they will invest useful Industry, 
attracting to it the entire human race. 

The Legions, as we have seen, exercise a similar function ; they 
are the preservers of Unity in the relations that grow out of friendship 
and ambition ; for the labors which, from social charity they execute, 
overcome the principal obstacle to the union and fusion of all classes 
and the establishment of social unity. The Legions thus aid power¬ 
fully in sustaining the two cardinal major virtues — those which derive 
from friendship and ambition ; but their action and influence do not 
extend to the two minor cardinal virtues—those which derive from 
love and the family affection. This influence is reserved to other 
bodies, and first of all to the Yestalic, which will aid in giving to love 
and the family sentiment, a direction and development in unison with 
sincerity and honor, or the requirements of friendship and ambition. 

All these virtues sink into the rank of moral reveries, of mere ab¬ 
stractions, if their exercise does not lead to Industry, to the creation of 
wealth, which is the first focus of attraction, th.e first w-ant of man. 
There can be no practical and collective social virtues without wealth. 
The Spartans even were destitute of them : with their simulated pat¬ 
riotism and devotion, and their iron money, they were but a league 
of ambitious and tyrannical ascetics, living in idleness on the labor of 
the Helots, whom they massacred without compunction when policy 
dictated it. 

Every Corporation or Body, then, in the Combined Order, which 
promotes the social virtues, must at the same time promote Industry 
and the creation of wealth; such will be one of the functions of the 
Vestals. They will, among other useful services, cooperate in the exe- 


248 


THE VESTALIC BODY. 


cution of all important public works by lending the charm of their 
presence to the meeting of the Industrial Armies which execute them. 

Within the Association, the Vestals will cooperate with the Legions 
in the execution of labors of charity and devotion, which are not of 
an uncleanly character ; whenever a work rendered necessary by some 
emergency is to be performed, the Vestalic Body will, under the Le¬ 
gions, be found the first at the task. In the early morning labors, 
they will take part with the latter corporation. Recommended by so 
many qualities to public favor, it will not be surprising that they 
should be the object of a semi-religious veneration, and be universally 
idolized. They will hold the rank of a Divine Corporation ; the Le¬ 
gions, who accord the first salute to no other power, will lower their 
banners before the Vestalic Body, revered as a reflection of the Deity , 
and serve it as a guard of honor. 

The Vestals will, from their number, elect monthly four, who will 
preside during the term, and occupy the post of honor at ceremonies, 
representing the Association at its celebrations and on its festive 
occasions. If an eminent stranger visits the Association, they will be 
deputed to receive him at the columns of the domain, and convey him 
in their car, drawn by white horses in violate-colored harnesses and 
accoutrements,* escorted by a company of the Legions. 

At the assembling of the Industrial Armies—those brilliant unions 
by which great industrial enterprizes are undertaken, and Herculean 
labors executed — they will be present and open the campaign; they 
will distribute the banners, and, with the Legions, will occupy the first 
place in the opening ceremonies. The presence of the Vestals at the 
Industrial Armies, will add greatly to the charm of their fetes, which 
will be given every evening, and will be as exciting and agreeable as 
those of Civilization are wearisome, rendering admission to the armies 
a favor. The labors will not be fatiguing, as movable awnings will, 
whenever required, be used, and all branches of the work will be sys- 


* The Vestalic Colors are : 

White , symbolic of Unity; 

Ruse-color , symbolic of Chastity ; 

Violet , symbolic of Friendship ; 

Ihown and Azure mingled with Red, symbolic of Modesty and Love combined 
with Ambition. 

There will be nothing arbitrary in tbe choice of the distinctive colors of the 
Corporations of the Combined Order ; they will be indicated by analogies furnished 
by Nature. 



THE YESTALIC BODY. 


249 


temalized and executed in detail. Thus all the means, which the Com¬ 
bined Older can command, will be associated with and directed to 
productive and creative Industry ; all the influences of which it can 
dispose, will be brought to bear to invest it with charm, dignity and 
attractiveness. 

One important influence, exercised by the Yestalic Body, will be 
the formation of ties between ages which now are not in sympathy. 
The young, that enter upon the age of puberty, separate themselves 
from the children, on whom they look commonly with contempt. Such 
a result is entirely opposed to the policy of Association, which must 
establish ties and sympathies between all ages. The Yestalic Body, 
being the connecting link between childhood and adult age, must be 
rendered an object of respect and affection for both. Associated as it 
is with the. Legions, participating in many of their labors, it is for 
them an object of veneration. This association will establish ties and 
sympathies between one portion of childhood and adult age. The 
sympathy will be extended by degrees to other ages, for example, to 
the old, who are the natural allies and instructors of the child, and thus 
gradually it will effect a fusion of all ages. 

A very great defect, which may be here mentioned, of our present 
methods of education, is that, in studies, they offer no counterpoises to 
the influence of Love, which, at the ages of fifteen or sixteen, takes 
hold of and preoccupies young minds, and distracts their attraction to 
such a degree as to cause them to forget the little they have previ¬ 
ously learned of a useful character. This is especially true of young 
women, who soon neglect their previous studies, even those of an 
agreeable character, like music. The education of Association will 
counteract this tendency by connecting distinction in the Yestalic Body 
with increased zeal in industrial pursuits and in studies. 

Let us remark that the Yestalic career must open an avenue to 
honor and distinction as a compensation for any sacrifices made in 
Love,, otherwise it would not be embraced .from passion, but as a moral 
duty; it would become irksome, oppressive, as is the condition of 
young girls at present, forced to be moralists, repressing their inclina¬ 
tions, smothering their attractions without any indemnity for their 
sacrifices. 

If wo compare the honors awarded in the Combined Order to the 
Yestal state with its condition in Civilization, we shall see how little 
chastity is in reality esteemed at present. If a young girl is poor, of 


250 


THE YESTALIC BODY. 


what value are, in most countries, her chastity and modesty to her. 
She can not marry without a dower; her parents are often reduced 
to speculate upon a marriage with some elderly person, who will 
consider his physical infirmities an offset against her poverty. If she 
is in wealthy circumstances, she is the object of sordid negotiations for a 
marriage of equal or greater wealth and social position, or she is the 
mark of some fortune-hunter. If she remains unmarried till after 
twenty-five, she is sneered at as an old maid, and as she advances in 
years, she meets, as a reward for a youth passed amid privations, with 
those sarcasms which are commonly bestowed on spinsters, and this in 
return for that chastity which is exacted of her as the most sacred of 
duties. 

Such is the policy of Civilization with regard to Love. Under the 
aegis of marriage, it sanctions the most scandalous unions; out of mar¬ 
riage, it rewards the sacrifices to chastity which it requires with sar¬ 
casm and insult. 

We have spoken in connection with the Vestalic Body of young 
girls only; it would sound strange with our present morals to speak 
of such a body, composed of young persons of the male sex of from 
fifteen to nineteen. But the Combined Order will not be so incon¬ 
stant as to create a Yestalic order applied to one sex only; it would 
be imitating the contradiction of our customs which prescribe chastity 
to young women, and tolerate libertinage on the part of young men. 
This is encouraging on the one hand what is forbidden on the other 
— a duplicity of action worthy of Civilization. If chastity is to be 
strictly observed by young women, it must of necessity be observed 
by young men also. There exists no third sex in love; if, then, the 
latter are left free in love relations, they can only exercise their liberty 
with women who are married or unmarried ; in one case, adultery is 
committed ; in the other, the laws of chastity are necessarily violated; 
it is thus that the customs of Civilization are constantly engendering 
contradictions, by tolerating different standards of morality for the two 
sexes. 

The advent of the age of puberty—the most critical epoch in edu¬ 
cation — would become a serious danger for the system and policy of 
the Combined Order, if it caused the young to deviate from the noble 
sentiments with which their previous education has inspired them. 
Love should enter upon the scene only to give increased force to those 
honorable impulses; it should exercise an influence the opposite of 


THE VESTALIC BODY. 


251 


what it exercises in Civilization, in which it fills young heads with 
ideas that lead them to disregard the precepts of the education they 
have received, with a spirit of intrigue, with opposition to good morals, 
and often with a taste for excesses and vices. Such are the results 
of our Civilized system of education which is ignorant of the means of 
opening to Love a natural and honorable career, and of regulating its 
action in its early development. 

The Yestalic Institution will avoid all these dangers — dangers to 
which the young age is now exposed; it will furnish the means of 
effecting in a useful and noble manner most difficult transitions ; it 
will open a career of honor and distinction to one phase of Love, and 
will induce the young to continue under its influence to the age of 
nineteen or twenty. At that age, the body is fully developed, and the 
mind educated; various branches of studies which are withheld from 
children under the age of puberty are then entered upon; and thus a 
gradual preparation, both physical and moral, is made for the exercise 
of the passion in its compound mode. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVENTH. 

DIVISION OF PROFITS: CLASSIFICATION OF THE SERIES. 

We will now proceed to consider the important question of the di¬ 
vision and distribution of the wealth which is annually created in the 
Association among its members. On a proper solution of this problem 
will depend to a great extent success in industrial operations. If any 
disagreement and dissension should arise, dissatisfaction would extend 
gradually to other branches of social relations, and sow the seeds of 
dissolution. 

To secure concord and unanimity of sentiment in this important 
branch, the Combined Older will resort to two contrasted impulses in 
man, and employ them conjointly as a means of arriving at unity. 
The first is that of Self-interest or Cupidity, which is rarely silent 
among men. If means can be found to make this impulse or passion 
serve the cause of equity, and promote a fair adjustment of interests, 
we may feel certain that the reign of justice will be secured. The 
second impulse which the Combined Order will employ is that of Gen¬ 
erosity, to which no appeal can be made in the industrial affairs of 
Civilization with its conflicting, individual interests. If we judge by 
prevailing sentiments, we shall expect very little from Generosity, and 
will not be able to understand how an accord in the division of pro¬ 
fits can be based upon it; we shall treat briefly this subject at the 
close of the next chapter, and point out the means by which this im¬ 
pulse will be made to concur in the solution of the problem under 
consideration. As equilibrium and harmony can, in all departments, 
be established only by means of compound and contrasted forces, the 
Combined Order will resort to the two impulses mentioned, and em¬ 
ploy them conjointly. 

Nothing is easier than to divide profits according to Capital; it 
requires merely an arithmetical calculation; but the remuneration of 
Labor and Talent, (he art of satisfying every person on these two 
points, is so unknown in our present industrial system, that we hear 



DIVISION OF PEOFITS. 


253 


on all sides complaints of wrong and injustice. It would be impossi¬ 
ble in the Combined Order to remunerate equitably these two sources 
of production, these two agents in the creation of wealth, if each indi¬ 
vidual were to receive the direct product of his labor in the various 
Series to which he belongs. It would be necessary to sell each crop 
separately, and to divide the product of a bed of vegetables, for exam¬ 
ple, among- several groups which had cooperated in their cultivation, 
giving shares respectively to the groups engaged in spading, planting, 
irrigating and gathering the product Such a division would lead to 
inextricable complication : we want a method which will simplify and 
abridge the operation — which will be to present methods what alge¬ 
bra is to arithmetic. 

To explain the abreviative method which the Combined Order will 
employ in the division of profits, or the distribution of the wealth an¬ 
nually created, we must first teach the mode of classifying the Series; 
this classification will be determined by the degree of importance and 
usefulness of each Series in the industrial and other operations of the 
Association, that is, according to the service it renders; and it will 
receive a dividend out of the general product according to its rank 
and merit. Each Series being a cooperator with, and a copartner of 
the other Series of its Association — not operating separately on its 
own account — it will not be paid out of the product of its own labor, 
but out of the general product of all the Series. Its remuneration, or 
the dividend it receives, will be regulated .by the rank it holds in the 
labors, or in the industrial system of the Association ; these labors 
will be divided into three classes: Those of, 1. Necessity; 2. Utility ; 
3. Attractiveness. 

We will explain this system by an example. The Series engaged 
in the cultivation of cereals will receive neither a half, a third, nor a 
quarter of the product of the grain it raises. The grain goes into the 
general mass of products to be sold or consumed-; and if the Series 
is considered of high importance in the industrial operations of its As¬ 
sociation, it will receive a share or dividend of the first order in the 
class to which it belongs. The Series engaged in grain culture is evi¬ 
dently to be ranked in the first class — that of Necessity; but in this 
class there are about five orders of series, receiving as many grades 
of pay. It is probable that the Series cultivating the cereals, such as 
wheat rye, barley, oats and Indian corn, will not be ranked above the 
third order in the class of Necessity ; for the labors attendant upon 
22 


254 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


their cultivation, such as ploughing and reaping, have nothing repul¬ 
sive in them, and are to be classed after those which are inherently 
repugnant, and which rank as a consequence in the first of the five or¬ 
ders of Necessity. 

The labors of the Juvenile Legions take precedence over all others, 
and rank the highest; then come uncleanly works, such as those in 
the abattoirs ; also the functions of the nurses, both of children and 
the sick; as they are repugnant, they wflll be classed above the work 
*of ploughing or harvesting; the same rule will apply to the practice 
of surgery and medicine, and to all other pursuits that are inherently 
repulsive. These occupations will employ several Series, which will 
be classed in the highest order of the category of Necessity. 

Let us repeat that it is not the value of the product of a Series 
which determines its rank, and the amount of pay which it receives; 
it is the influence of its w r ork in promoting industrial attraction and 
social harmony. We will present a problem bearing on this point, 
which will be very apt to mislead the reader; it is this : 

Which of the two Series, that engaged in the cultivation of Fruit 
or of Flowers, should take the precedence, and receive the highest re¬ 
muneration ? No doubt can exist on this subject, it will be answered ; 
the cultivation of Fruit is evidently of much more importance than 
that of Flowers ; as a consequence, the Series engaged in the former 
should not only rank higher, but it should be classed in the category 
of Utility , while the latter should be classed in that of Attractiveness , 
which receives a lesser remuneration. This will be the opinion of the 
great majority of persons; having no conception of either the possi¬ 
bility or the importance of rendering industry attractive, they attach 
no value to measures that would lead to its realization. 

This opinion is entirely erroneous, and for a two-fold reason. The 
Horticultural Series, although very productive, is occupied with a 
work which is in itself extremely attractive ; it will, as a consequence, 
like all works of the kind, be lightly remunerated, as the incentive of 
pay is not necessary to attract persons to engage in it. On the other 
hand, the Series devoted to the culture of flowers will, although it pro¬ 
duces hardly as much as it costs, be ranked in the class of Utility. 
Let us explain the reasons for this double classification, deduced from 
the influence of attraction. 

The fruit orchards in the Combined Order will be delightful places 
of resort, and their care will be the most attractive of occupations 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


255 


To the charm of agreeable social relations, arising from the meeting 
of groups from neighboring Associations, and the union of both sexes 
and of all ages, will be added various pleasures of a material character ; 
every orchard will present the spectacle of a fairy scene; it will be 
ornamented with statues ; with floral altars surrounded by- shrubbery, 
and with a beautiful pavilion, located in the center. If to the special 
charm of this branch of cultivation, we add the rivalries of the groups, 
the reunion of sexes, and the gay repasts served at the close of an in¬ 
dustrial session, it is certain that out of every hundred persons, ninety- 
nine will feel an attraction for the work, and be drawn to the orchards. 
Fruit culture will thus give rise to a Series that will excite universal 
attraction. 

The horticultural Series will, in consequence, be classed among 
those that receive the smallest dividend, as its work is the most attrac¬ 
tive ; the value of its product is not to be taken as the standard by 
which it is to be remunerated. Other Series will resort to various ex¬ 
pedients to increase the attractiveness of their labors, but the horticul¬ 
tural will seek to lessen the charms connected with its branch, and to 
diminish the general desire of engaging in it. 

The culture of Flowers is very poorly appreciated in Civilization ; 
if its product possesses charms, its work does not, for it requires a 
great deal of assiduity, of skill and of minute attention to details, to 
procure a pleasure of short duration ; but it is a branch of culture 
which is precious as a means of exciting in women and children a 
taste for agriculture, and its exercise, and a love of Nature. It is to 
create an agricultural school, that Nature gives to women and children 
a taste for flowers. The cultivation of fruit is only partially suited to 
children ; it can not become a field of agricultural education for them, 
whereas the cultivation of flowers, both large and small, is in every 
way adapted to their strength and capacities ; for this, among other 
reasons, the /loral Series will be classed in the second category, and 
ranked among the works of Utility. 

We may judge by this parallel which we have drawn between the 
cultivation of fruits and flowers, that the Combined Order, in its esti-. 
mate of the value of the different branches of industry, will be gov¬ 
erned by very different considerations from those which now prevail; 
and that the quantity or real value of the product, which is at pres¬ 
ent taken as the standard of valuation, will not be the standard in 
the industrial system of the Combined Order. 


256 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


This Order will assign the lowest grade of remuneration to fruit 
culture, although it is one of the most precious; for two classes, 
women and children, will live to a certain extent on fruit, either raw 
or preserved. Fruit, compounded in various ways with sugar, which 
will be very cheap when the tropical zone is brought under cultiva¬ 
tion, will be one of the primary articles of consumption in the Com¬ 
bined Order; bread, which is a comparatively coarse substance, is 
the great resource of Civilization ; when made of common qualities of 
flour, it is a food adapted only to coarse populations. 

Let us take another example : ’ certain function^ which appear at 
present superfluous, such as the Opera, will in Association be classed 
in the second Order of Necessity ; the first order, it will be borne in 
mind, comprises those works only which are of an uncleanly or repul¬ 
sive character. But,” it will be objected, t; we can do without the op¬ 
era, while we can not do without wheat and flour.” The objection is 
well-founded in reference to the Civilized Order, in which the question 
of attractive industry is not taken into consideration but we have 
seen in the chapters on Education that, in the Combined Order, the 
Opera will be one of the most efficient means of training the child to 
dexterity and material unity in industrial functions; on this account, 
the Opera will be considered of the highest importance, and will be 
ranked among works of the class of Necessity. 

To sum'up: the classification of the Series, and the remuneration 
they receive, will be regulated by the general requirements of indus¬ 
try, not by the value of their products. Let us state more precisely 
the law that will regulate their classification. Their rank and the re¬ 
muneration they receive, will be based on the following considerations : 

1. In direct proportion to the aid they render in promoting indus¬ 
trial attraction and harmony in social relations. 

2. In a medium proportion to the repulsiveness of obstacles to be 
overcome. 

3. In inverse proportion to the degree of attractiveness of each 
branch of industry. 

We will explain briefly these three considerations, wffiich form the 
basis of the rank and the pay of the Series. 

First Consideration: Promotion of Social Unity. The aim of 
the polity of the Combined Order will be to uphold and promote the 
success of the system which secures the social happiness of the human 
race. The Series the most precious, will, in consequence, be those 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


257 


which, productive or unproductive , tend most efficaciously to multiply 
and strengthen social ties and to promole social harmony; Such, 
among others, will be the Series of the Juvenile Legions, without 
which the fusion of the various classes of society and the maintenance 
of social harmony would be impossible. This Series will, then, be the 
first in direct influence in creating social unity, and in establishing the 
reign of general friendship among all classes; it will hold the same 
rank in the second category. 

Second Consideration: Repulsiveness of the work to be done. 
In this class will be embraced the labors of miners, the functions of 
nurses, etc. A labor which is simply difficult without being repulsive, 
is often a sport for the athletic; but a sport can not be made of a 
work that is repulsive to the senses, like the cleaning of a sewer, or 
the working of a mine. The repulsiveness may be overcome from a 
point of honor, from the religious sentiment, as is the case with the 
Legions and the Nurses, but the senses are not the less violated, 
while a work that is simply fatiguing without being repulsive, like the 
bulk of agricultural labors, may be rendered exciting and pleasant, if 
proper incentives are brought to bear upon it. For this reason the 
Combined Order will assign priority of rank to those labors which are 
in themselves repulsive. 

Third Consideration: The degree of attractiveness connected 
with occupations. The more attractive a work, the less will be its 
pecuniary remuneration. On this ground it would appear that the 
operatic and horticultural Series should both belong to the third class, 
or that of attractiveness, and receive the lowest grade of pay, for in 
the country, nothing is more agreeable than the care of fruit orchards, 
and in the city than the opera. 

The Series of fruit-growers will accordingly be classed in the third 
rank, with works of an attractive and agreeable character: it possesses 
a high degree of charm, while it does not tend specially to promote 
the cause of social unity. The Series of the opera, on the contrary, 
promotes the cause of unity; first, by its refining and artistic influ¬ 
ence ; and, second, by the important aid it renders in 'educating the 
child to material harmony. This Series is precious in a double sense, 
direct and inverse ; it will hold, consequently, the first rank in the 
class of Necessity. 

By combining properly the three rules above laid down, we shall 
be able to rightly classify the Series, assign to each its true rank, and 


258 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


determine the remuneration of share of the general product to which 
it is entitled. A fe-w mistakes in this matter would be of no serious 
importance in the experimental Association; the effect would be coun¬ 
terbalanced by the sentiment of the great importance, of the enterprise, 
by the noble pride of changing the condition of the social world, and 
by the hope of planting in our incoherent societies the germ of social 
unity. 

A few errors of classification will not, then, affect the collective ac¬ 
cord that will reign 5 any controversies to which they may give rise, 
will be absorbed in the general passion of Unityism, which is unde¬ 
veloped and unknown in Civilization, but which will soon be awak¬ 
ened and called into action in Association. 

Our moralists and philosophers who imagine that they are acquainted 
with all the passions of the soul, are like children ten years old, who, 
delighted with their juvenile sports, have no idea that at twenty they 
will be animated by other tastes and feelings. The development and 
action of the passions will, in the Combined Order, under the influ¬ 
ence of true social institutions and social harmony, be very different 
from what they are in Civilization. To suppose that the passional de¬ 
velopment of man will remain the same in that Order which is his 
social destiny, as it is in our discordant societies, is to commit a radi¬ 
cal mistake in relation to human nature, and the dual action of the 
passions. 

Among the passions which will be born in the future under the 
influence of social harmony, the most important will be that of Unity¬ 
ism. or real philanthropy, based on the plenitude of happiness, and 
giving rise to the desire of spreading around us the joy with which we 
are filled. We see a faint glimmer of this passion at times when im¬ 
portant events take place that fill with delight the hearts of a Avhole 
population, as, for example, in the case of a city, long besieged and 
threatened with destruction, which is suddenly relieved ; the people, 
giving vent to their delight and enthusiasm, forge.t for a time all ranks 
and the distinction of classes, and mingle together under the influence 
of a real sentiment of fraternity and unity, animated by a collective 
and common joy and interest. We see here an effect of the passion of 
Unityism, the shadow of it as it will exist in the Combined Order, 
when universal happiness shall reign. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHTH. 


DIRECT ACCORD IN THE DIVISION OF PROFITS ; EQUILIB¬ 
RIUM BY MEANS OF SELF-INTEREST. 

We now come to the solution, in a direct sense, of the apparently 
difficult problem of establishing perfect justice and entire unanimity in 
the division and distribution of wealth, and of remunerating every 
person, man, woman and child, according to his or her Labor , Capital 
and Talent. This problem will be solved by raising self-interest from 
its individual or simple to its compound or collective mode of action. 

Self-interest with the cupidity and selfishness to which it gives rise, 
will lead, as we shall see, when properly balanced, to concord and 
justice, — as much so as Generosity; and that the passion of acquisi¬ 
tiveness, which is vicious in its simple or individual action, will be¬ 
come an incentive to equity in its compound action. 

Civilized man. operating individually antf isolatedly in a false sys¬ 
tem of industry, acquires wealth by the exercise of rapacity and self¬ 
ishness ; he will obey these vicious impulses so long as means are 
not found to combine the individual with the collective interest, and 
to induce him from self-interest to practice justice. Appeals of a moral 
character to honor and equity will have but little effect: they do not 
offer positive and practical counterpoises to the selfish sentiments. A 
system must be devised and established in which the individual will 
find his personal interests promoted by conforming to the requirements 
of distributive justice, and by forwarding the interests of others. 

In the Combined Order, every person will desire equity in the dis¬ 
tribution of wealth, because such equity will secure the rights, not 
only of the individual but of the mass, and will call out sentiments of 
devotion and of mutual good-will. 

Our interests, at present, are all personal, that is, simple and self¬ 
ish, and have nothing in common with those of our neighbors ; means 
must be found to render them compound ; that is, to conciliate the 
individual interest with the collective, and to cause the one to serve 
the other. Let us see how this will be effected. 


260 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


If in the Combined Order each individual were devoted to but one 
pursuit, if each were a carpenter, a mason or a gardener only, he would 
seek to give an undue preponderance to his branch of industry, and 
secure it the highest rate of remuneration possible; such would be the 
course which simple and unbalanced personal interest would suggest; 
but in the Combined Order, in which every individual —man, woman 
and child —is a member of a number of Series, engaged in industry, 
the arts and sciences, no one will desire to secure a decided advan¬ 
tage to a single one of them. Every person, from self-interest, will be 
induced to speculate in a sense the opposite of the civilized, policy, and 
to give his voice on all points for equity. We will first describe this 
system in practice, and then give the theory. 

We will divide into General and Special the influences that will 
impel every member of an Association to dpsire strict justice in the 
remuneration of Labor, Capital and Talent. 

1. General Influences. — We will lake first the case of a wealthy 
member of an Association: he will receive a liberal dividend on 
his stock, provided its industrial affairs are prosperous, which will de¬ 
pend, to a great extent, on the concord existing among the members. 
As a consequence, he will be led to desire exact justice in the division 
of profits, and would be opposed to any measure that might wrong 
the interests of either Labor or Talent, and dissatisfy those who are 
interested in them. If, as a stockholder, he wished to secure one-half 
of the product to Capital, as follows: capital six-twelfths; labor four- 
twelfths; talent two-twelfths,— the two other classes of members, and 
the most numerous, whose incomes depend mainly on Labor and Tal¬ 
ent, would become dissatisfied ; attraction would slacken, and with it 
industrial activity, which would cause production to fall off. The 
wealthy member will desire, then, from self-interest, to establish an 
equitable division like the following: four-twelfths to Capital; five- 
twelfths to Labor; three-twelfths to Talent. On this basis, the divi¬ 
dend on his stock would be ample ; while, in addition, he would enjoy 
the pleasure of seeing general concord and satisfaction reign among all 
classes. He will be all the more inclined to this justice, as he will 
belong to various series, receiving shares awarded to labor and talent; 
for pleasures like those of hunting, fishing, music, the dramatic art, 
culture of flowers, are paid like the ordinary labors of the field and 
the vineyard. Moreover, he has formed numerous ties of friendship 
with the non-capitalist class, and his sympathies attract him strongly 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 261 

to the observance of exact justice in all his industrial relations with 
them. 

Under such influences, self-interest, which would have impelled him 
to vote for awarding one-lialf to Capital, is counterbalanced by two 
generous and honorable impulses : the first, the affection which he has 
conceived for the members of the various. Series to which he belongs, 
and to which he is attached by numerous ties ; the second, the knowl¬ 
edge that his personal interest is identified with the collective, and is 
dependent upon the industrial success and the prosperity of the entire 
Association. 

Thus the selfish desire of gain, which now leads to the sacrifice of 
the collective gqod and of all equity in human dealings, finds in the 
serial organization two counterpoises, which balance it properly, estab¬ 
lish justice in the division of profits, and satisfy all claims and inter¬ 
ests. This balanced action of the passions, and the fine accords to 
which it gives rise, is in analogy with the fundamental proj erty of 
the mathematical series, — the sum of the extreme terms equal to 
double the sum of the middle term. (In the series 2, 4, 6 ; twice 4 is 
equal to 2 and 6.) 

Let us now analyze the same counterpoises in the impulses which 
govern the non-capitalist classes, and the same balance of interests to 
which they lead. 

A member, possessing no capital, owning no stock, wishes to favor 
Labor, we will suppose, at the expense of Capital and Talent—to es¬ 
tablish, for example, the following division : 

To Labor seven-twelfths ; to Capital three-twelfths ; to Talent two- 
twelfths. 

The tendency is here to favor Labor at the expense of Capital 
and Talent, which is the desire of every laborer in the Civilized Order, 
who says —my labor produces everything , and he believes himself 
authorized to filch whatever he can from the capitalist or employer ; 
who, on his side, thinks it right to reduce to the lowest possible point 
the wages of labor. Such is the equilibrium that reigns in the im¬ 
pulses that govern men in our incoherent industrial system ; instead 
of balance and concord, there exist a conflict of all interests, and a 
selfish strife for gain, accompanied by the exercise of fraud and cun¬ 
ning under every form. 

In Association, the man without capital will act very differently : 
his first impulse will be to favor Labor, as he expects, no dividend 
22 * 


262 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


from capital; but two other considerations arise, which counterbalance 
this selfish tendency. First, he is skillful in certain details of some 
branches of industry ; it is important, consequently, for him that the 
rights of Talent or Skill be respected, as he has a claim to a share 
of the portion awarded to it. Second, -he is well aware of the impor¬ 
tant services which capital ‘renders to industry ; he knows that they 
who control it are of the greatest service to the Series to which they 
belong—giving lustre to their industry, encouraging and aiding the 
yoiing, who are members, and promoting industrial elegance and re¬ 
finement— as they employ their wealth in the cause of productive la¬ 
bor. These considerations will dispose him to respect capital, and to 
desire to see the portion of the general product awarded to Labor re¬ 
duced from seven-twelfths to five-twelfths — a reduction which, w r ell 
considered, will result advantageously to him; for his happiness, as he 
knows, is intimately connected with attractive industry, which would 
relapse into its present repugnant state, if capital aud talent were sac¬ 
rificed to labor. 

Here self-interest, with its grasping tendency, which would absorb 
the whole, will be balanced by two counterpoises favorable to other in¬ 
terests. In this case, as in that of the capitalist, two extreme forces 
balance the double influence of a middle force. Thus all classes in 
the Combined Order will be constantly led to desire justice from the 
influence of two collective interests, counterbalancing self-interest, which, 
in Civilization, meets with n* counterpoises, finds no advantage in con¬ 
forming to the requirements of the general good, and in following the 
dictates of distributive justice. 

2. Impulses of a Special Character. — We will now analyze the 
counterpoises, which, in details, will balance the influence of self-interest. 
A person, belonging to some thirty Series, divides -them, we will sup¬ 
pose, into three classes or catagorios, each composed of about ten 
Series.* In the first class, he is an old and experienced cooperator; 
he holds a high rank as regards skill, and is entitled to a high grade 
of pay. In the third class, he is a recent member, of but little expe¬ 
rience, and entitled to but a low grade of pay; in the second, or in- 


* It will be objected, that if a person belongs to so many Series, and takes part in’so 
many branches of industry he will be efficient in none : the common adage of “ Jack of 
all trades, and master of none,” will be brought up and cited in condemnation of 
the Serial organization. We will answer, first, that a member of a Series executes but 
one d/:tail of the work on which the Series is engaged ; second, that the industrial ed- 



DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


203 


termediate class, he holds a medium rank as regards experience, time 
of Service, skill and claim to remuneration. Here are three classes of 
opposing interests, impelling him in three directions, and inducing 
him, both from self-interest and pride, to advocate strict justice. 

If a false estimate is made of the merit and value of the labor of 
any of the Series to which he belongs, he will be apt to lose, first, in 
the Series in which he excels, and in which he receives the highest 
grade of pay ; besides, he will be offended at seeing their labor and 
his own undervalued. It is true, that any injustice done the first class 
would favor the Series of the third ; but as he is only a subaltern in 
them, and receives a small dividend, he will not be compensated for 
any reductions made on the first class, in which he receives a high 
grade of remuneration ; on the other hand, he does not wish to see 
the Series of the third class, to which his tastes have recently attracted 
him, rated below their real merit; he esteems and upholds their 
branches of industry ; he sustains them both from corporate friendship 
and from pride. As to the Series comprised in the second class, in 
which he holds a rank and receives a degree of compensation midway 
between the first and third, it is for his interest that they should be 


ucation of the child begins at three years of age, and is continued to twenty—in fact 
through life. Now, with a system of attractive education, and with all the material 
means necessary to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and skill, what would not an 
intelligent hurnnn being acquire in the course of from twelve to fifteen years? Besides, 
the knowledge of a detail in some branch of industry may aid the possessor of it in sev¬ 
eral other branches, and, as a consequence, in the .Series engaged upon them. There will 
be no serious obstacles in this respect when Industry and Education shall be scientifically 
organized. In the study and prosecution of some branches of the Sciences and Fine Arts, 
it will be necessary no doubt to apply prolonged, and in some cases solitary, labor. Any 
individuals that have a desire or attraction to devote themselves to such labor, will, of 
course, be perfectly free to do so; this labor will probably receive the highest remuneration, 
as it will require the greatest sacrifices to undergo it. The great bulk—the seven-eighths 
or more of labors — will, however, be performed by groups, and occupations will be of 
short duration, and extremely varied. When labor is perfectly methodized, and is exe¬ 
cuted by large numbers, great results can be accomplished in short periods. Entire lib¬ 
erty' must exist in Association.—in industry, as in all other departments. Individuals and 
groups will be free to prosecute their labors as attraction and judgment dictate. If the 
Series of groups, with their short sessions, is not the natural and attractive system of 
prosecuting industry, then the natural and attractive system must be discovered. If the 
hypothesis on which Fourier proceeds is true, namely, that Supreme Wisdom would not 
have destined man to exercise industry without precalculating a mode for its exercise, 
adapted to his moral and physical nature, that is, to his attractions and his health, it fol¬ 
lows that there is a positive system of industrial organization to be discovered, having 
its origin in that Wisdom: the problem is to determine the system, whatever it may 
be.— Ed. 


/ 



264 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


paid what is justly their due, without encroaching on either of them. 
Thus in every way he is led to desire exact justice in the division of 
profits; it is the only means of satisfying conjointly his pecuniary in¬ 
terests, his corporate pride, and his sympathies. Let us -prove this by 
the examination of a single detail. 

Should he succeed in favoring the first class of Series in which he 
excels, and receive a large dividend, he would become the dupe of 
his own cupidity. Injustice in the serial organization, with its com¬ 
pound and balanced action, turns to the detriment of him who perpe¬ 
trates it; we will illustrate this by an example: 

The first class of Series — about ten in number — is, we will sup¬ 
pose, divided nearly equally between those of Necessity, Utility and 
Attractiveness. Now, if the member in question should succeed in 
securing by his influence any undue advantages to this class, it is 
hardly probable that such advantages could be extended to all three 
catagories, but to one only of them ; hence, if he caused favoritism to 
prevail in the three or four Series that were ranked in the catagory 
of Necessity, he would lose as much in those of the opposite class, 
that of Attractiveness, and would not promote his interests in the in¬ 
termediate class, that of Utility. Taking them all together, he would 
not increase his profits in the least; and for his partiality, for his ef¬ 
forts to favor one set of Series at the expense of the others, he would 
meet with the just distrust and criticism of his co-laborers, and would 
lose their votes for positions of honor and emolument, which are nu¬ 
merous in 'the Series. The want of public favor is very prejudicial 
in the Combined Order, as rank and preferment are determined by 
election ; in Civilization it is of but little consequence, as lucrative 
places are either not elective, or are secured by intrigue. 

The incentives, then, to desire distributive justice in the division 
of profits will exist, as we see, in the details as well as in the general 
system of the serial organization. The regime of the Series is one 
that breathes justice, and transforms into a thirst for justice that pre¬ 
tended vice which is called the thirst for gold. Our passions all bo- 
come good, provided they are developed in the serial order — that is, 
in the order to which God destined them; but their development must 
be in conformity with the laws laid down in the treatise on ,the Series. 
If those laws are properly observed, every individual will be drawn 
to. and engaged in, a large number of Series, and in due proportion in 
the three classes of Necessity, Utility and Attractiveness, operating in 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


265 


some as an experienced and skillful member; in others, as a novice; 
and in others, again, in a medium capacity between the two. When 
once his interests, his tastes, his corporate pride are linked in with a 
large number of Series, he will be animated by the desire of justice 
in all things, and will favor a strictly just award to the three factors 
or agents of production — Labor, Capital and Talent. 

It is to the attainment of this end that the solicitude of the found¬ 
ers of the first Association should be particularly directed : it can only 
be secured by interlinking the passions and interests of the individual 
with a large number of Series, and by properly combining and con¬ 
necting the latter; by this means the individual will become associa¬ 
ted in his sympathies with the mass, and the sentiment of justice and 
unity called out. The directions given in the chapters on the Series 
are sufficient; if the conditions pointed out are fulfilled, if a liberal 
policy is pursued in embellishing industry, and if the means of fre¬ 
quently varying occupations is secured, so that every person can take 
part in a large number of Series, success will follow; It is essential 
that every member of an Association should belong to a large number 
of Series, and be connected in his interests and feelings with the ma¬ 
jority of the other members. 

The method of remunerating the groups of a Series and the mem¬ 
bers of a group, will be the same as that of remunerating the classes 
and orders of the Series,— the three classes of Necessity, Utility and 
Attractiveness, and the five orders in each class,— movement being, 
according to the idea of Schelling, in every sense the mirrored image 
of itself, a system of universal analogy. 

The share awarded to Talent, although limited to three-twelfths, 
and, perhaps, to two-twelfths, will be comparatively large, as in each 
branch of industry there will be many inexperienced members, who 
will have no claim to it; their number will, in each occupation, be 
at least a third, often a half, which will insure a liberal dividend to 
the half which is alone entitled to remuneration for Talent. The por¬ 
tion awarded to labor would not be thus unequally divided, for as 
every member of a group works more or less, he will be entitled to 
some share of the labor-dividend; it is for this, among other reasons, 
that five-twelfths at least of the. general product will be allotted to 
Labor; it is quite probable, even, that the share will be larger, and - 
that the basis of remuneration will be as follows : six-twelfths to La¬ 
bor; four-twelfths to Capital; and two-twelflhs to Talent. 


266 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


We may now begin to perceive that those forces in man, called 
passions, are the motors of a social mechanism in which mathematical 
justice will reign. No recourse is had, as we have seen, to arbitrary 
rules, statutes or stipulations, to solve the difficult problem of a divi¬ 
sion of profits. We have applied to the development of the passions 
the elementary laws of mechanics and mathematics ; they balance and 
harmonize the action of these forces in the same manner that they do 
all others; we have employed the passion which is now considered 
the primary source of all discord, namely, the love of gain or cupid¬ 
ity, as the means of establishing concord ; we have developed it in 
accordance with the serial law of equilibrium, and created a balance, 
an accord of two extreme forces, forming a counterpoise to a double 
middle force. 

Critics may assert that the theory of Association is an arbitrary 
and fanciful one ; but so far is this from the truth, that it is based 
on the elementary principles of mathematics. The theory of passional 
mechanics will in every way be supported by proofs drawn from this 
source; the new science of Passional Attraction which I unfold, con¬ 
forms in all its details to that of mathematics ; the passions, when de¬ 
veloped and operating in Series, are mathematics in action. 

The theory of Association, so far from being an arbitrary system, 
the offspring of speculation and imagination, is, on the contrary, the 
first and only theory of social organization which is free from this de¬ 
fect ; it alone takes Laws which exist in Nature, and which regulate 
the harmonies of the material world, as its guide in the study of the 
passions and of principles of social organization. It opens the way to 
the establishment of that justice and unity in the social world which 
has been the dream of philosophy. 

In the problem under consideration — that of an equitable distribu¬ 
tion of wealth—it creates, for example, a balance and unity of inter¬ 
ests jby its power of— 

Absorbing individual selfishness in the collective interests of each 
Series and of the entire Association ; and of balancing the collective 
claims and interests of each Series by the individual interests of its 
members in a large number of other Series. 

This brilliant effect of justice may be traced mainly to the influ¬ 
ence of two impulses : one of which operates in direct ratio to the 
number of Series in which the individual is* engaged, the other in in¬ 
verse ratio to the duration of the periods of occupation of each Series. 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


267 


1. In direct ratio to the number qf Series frequented. The greater 
the number, the more strongly will the individual be impelled, not to 
make the interests of a single one paramount, but to sustain the rights 
of all against the pretensions of each in particular. 

2. In inverse ratio to the duration of. occupations. The shorter the 
industrial sessions or periods of occupation, the greater is the facility 
for taking part in a large number of Series, the reciprocal influences 
of which would not counterbalance each other, if among them there 
was one which, by long and frequent meetings, absorbed the time of 
the members, and excited their special interest and solicitude. 

In these equilibriums, produced by the action of the Series, it is 
to be observed that the guide to be followed is in all cases one and 
the same 5 it is the rigorous conformity with the requirements of the 
three regulating or serial passions, developed simultaneously and in 
full accord, as described in"the chapters on the Series. 

I have described in the preceding pages the Direct Accord only 
in the division of profits— that resulting from self-interest. This accord 
or balance of interests will be incomplete the first year for want of 
experience, but other interests and sympathies will, as we remarked, 
counterbalance any inconvenience that may result therefrom ; at the 
end of two years, experiments will be made, which will lead to a 
proper adjustment of all details. I will now speak of the opposite in¬ 
fluence which Association will employ, namely, the Inverse Accord , 
resulting from Generosity and corporate sympathies. 


CHAPTER THIRTY-NINTH. 


INVERSE ACCORD IN THE DIVISION OF PROFITS; BAL¬ 
ANCE OF INTERESTS THROUGH GENEROSITY. 

I will first point out the difference between the two Accords. The 
accord or equilibrium established by self-interest is direct, as it 
springs from the impulse or passion that first influences man in pecu¬ 
niary matters, namely, the desire of gain; Nature is not limited to 
one means of equilibrium ; in the division of profits she establishes a 
second Accord, which is the opposite of the one we have described ; 
it is based on Generosity , as the former is on that natural impulse 
which causes us to desire the larger share for ourselves. This Accord 
we will call inverse, as it results from influences which operate in¬ 
directly in establishing concord and unity. 

The Inverse Accord will be produced by the influence of certain 
generous sentiments, which will be excited in the wealthy members of 
the Series. As their industrial occupations in the Series will be a re¬ 
creation, a pleasure for them, they will not accept that portion accruing 
to them for labor. This -impulse will generate accords of a more gen¬ 
erous character, governed by geometrical laws like those precedingly 
described. 

Let us suppose that A and B are two wealthy members of the 
Series of horticulturists: they are satisfied with the ample in¬ 
come which they derive from the dividends on their stock; they 
make known their intention of not receiving any pay for their labor 
in the Series, executed from pleasure, and with friends who aid them 
in giviug lustre to a favorite branch of culture ; they accept only the 
minimum or the eighth of the share awarded to them ; for custom 
forbids the refusal of the whole. This liberality on their part will turn 
to the advantage of the poorer members of the Series, and especially 
the young, who are novices, and receive no .portion of the dividend 
allotted to Talent. We will suppose that the poorer children obtain in 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


209 


this manner supplementary lots in the various series to which they be¬ 
long ; it will at the end of the year greatly increase their income, and 
will create numerous ties of sympathy between them and the generous 
donors,— ties that will extend to the parents, thus linking in bonds of 
affection all classes in society. 

We will now speak of the geometrical character of this balance of 
interests, which is in unity with the law of planetary equilibrium : 
Direct as masses and inverse as the square of distances. All laws, 
generative of harmony in the material world, are valuable as guides 
in Social Organization. 

If the wealthy members accept only the smallest share allowable for 
their labor; if, far from claiming the largest by virtue of their wealth, 
they abandon all above the minimum of an eighth, it follows that they 
tend to profits in inverse ratio of the distances of capital .* If they 
accept in. like manner the smallest portion allowable to Talent, their 
tendency to wealth is, then, as respects Labor and Talent, in inverse 
ratio of the distances of capital : this is one of the two conditions of 
indirect equilibrium in the distribution of wealth. 

The other condition is to tend to wealth in direct proportion to the 
mass or amount of capital. Of the four-twelfths of the product 
awarded to capital, the wealthy stockholders will receive larger or 
smaller dividends according to the amount of stock they own ; in this 
respect they tend to wealth in a ratio directly proportional to the mass of 
their capital: the richer they are, the more they receive. This second 
condition forms the counterpoise to the first, and the two combined, se¬ 
cures indirect equilibrium in the division of profits, conformable to that 
which reigns in planetary equilibrium. Throughout the system of 
Nature, this equilibrium, this balanced action, is produced by two op¬ 
posite forces, called in the sidereal system, the centripetal and the 
centiifugal. Equilibrium in the distribution of wealth has in like man¬ 
ner its centripetal impulse, which is that of self-interest and cupidity ; 
and its centrifugal impulse — that of Generosity and Collective Sym¬ 
pathy. 

A very different policy reigns in the Civilized system of industry; in 
it there is an entire absence of contrasted impulses. The rich in Civil- 


* That is, they tend through Labor to Profit in a ratio which is in inverse proportion 
to the amount of their capital; the larger their capital the less they receive from 
Labor —Fd. 



270 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


ization increase their profits in a ratio directly proportional to the 
mass, and directly proportional to the distance of capital ; for in 
every enterprise — whether commercial, industrial or financial — in 
which they engage, and to which they devote both their capital and 
their time, they expect a dividend, not only proportional to their cap¬ 
ital, which is just, but they also expect a salary or remuneration for 
their labor larger than that of any of their clerks or employees, while 
leaving to them at the same time the laborious part of the work to 
perform. 

They tend consequently to wealth in direct proportion to the 
masses of capital, and direct to the distances, which destroys all 
counterpoises, and causes an inversion of the principle of indirect equi¬ 
librium, produced by Generosity. The effect of this false action in 
the industrial system of Civilization is to create a state of monstrous 
injustice, to produce sw r arms of indigent by the side of a few’colossal 
fortunes. To the disgrace of all our theories of balance, counterpoise, 
guarantee and equilibrium, we see everywhere the prevalence of pov¬ 
erty, fraud, cupidity and duplicity of action. 

The Accord I have just described, resulting from Generosity, which 
will induce the rich to concede to their favorite Series the seven- 
eighths of the dividends due them for Labor and Talent, and per¬ 
sons of medium fortune the half will be considered merely an im¬ 
aginary and artificial arrangement, if judged by our present customs. 
I will remark that I have not explained the various motives which, in 
the Combined Order, will tend to produce this result : I have men¬ 
tioned but one, the corporate sympathy existing between the members 
of the Series — the richer and the poorer, the older and the younger 
— but that is only one of the resources which the .Serial Organization 
will employ. If the Accord based on Generosity is believed impos¬ 
sible, I will remark that the Direct Accord , based on self-interest, will 
suffice for the first generation of the Combined Order. I mention the 
Inverse Accord for the purpose of giving an idea of all the levers 
that will be used in establishing concord in the division of profits. 
This second Accord will become available only when the four cardinal 
affections —friendship, ambition, love and parentalism— are developed 
fully and harmoniously under institutions adapted to them. They will 
then give rise to numerous indirect accords and harmonies, one of 
which I have mentioned, and which, as impractible and imaginary as 
it may appear at present, will become a part of the code of polite- 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 271 

ness and honor of generations reared under the influences of social 
harmony. 

In relation to the portion of the profits awarded to Talent. I will 
observe merely that it will be of great advantage to the older mem¬ 
bers of the Series, who are not rich. As they are experienced in their 
branches of industry, and render most valuable service in directing 
the labors connected with them — labors in which the younger mem¬ 
bers can have acquired but little skill — they will receive a liberal 
dividend from this source. The portion of profits awarded to Talent 
will form a balance between those awarded to Capital and Labor. 

In comparing the action of the two impulses or forces, I have de¬ 
scribed, to the action of gravitation, I have spoken of one of the 
torces as operating inversely of the distance , and not of the square 
of the distance. This discrepancy in analogy is due to the fact that 
man, being a creature of a lower order than the planets, arrives at 
equilibrium by means which are simpler in degree. 

This outline of the solution of one of the principal problems of 
social harmony is a sufficient answer to the objection that the Theory 
I propound is an arbitrary and eccentric one, a mere creation of the 
fancy. It is in all its parts, as in the question I have been considering, 
free from this imputation : it is based, as I have said, on laws which 
we find in Nature, and is in analogy with the principles which under¬ 
lie all the harmonies known to us, such as the mathematical, the 
planetary and the musical. It may appear arbitrary, abstruse, fan¬ 
tastic, to men who, like our moral and political leaders, follow in their 
theories no other guides than their own speculations, prejudices and 
interests; who theorize without regard to positive laws or principles, 
and who, to maintain their artificial systems, resort to constraint, dis¬ 
guised under the name of law. 

Which, may it be presumed, is truly the interpreter of Nature: Their 
conflicting and incoherent doctrines, which,— the mere creation of the 
imaginative faculties in man, and everywhere sustained in the political 
world by legal violence,— are incapable of remedying in the least the 
miseries which afflict mankind ; or the theory of Association I unfold, 
which,— based in all its details, in industry as in the passions, on 
those laws of combination, distribution and equilibrium that exist in 
Nature, and operating only through liberty and attraction — will secure 
the reign of universal justice and happiness on the earth ? 

In testing their political theories, they make their experiments upon 


272 


DIVISION OF PROFITS. 


a whole empire, which often they convulse without producing any re¬ 
sult ; while I would limit a trial of Association to a small district, not 
greater in extent than a township or a commune; and on this limited 
scale no deceptive results could follow, lor an experiment of Associ¬ 
ation, operating by means of the industrial Series, would in any case 
double the product of industry or the wealth of society, and that by 
means which are entirely new, such as a perfect systematization and 
a methodical division of labor, short industrial sessions, the extensive 
application of machinery to agriculture, the appropriate employment 
of sexes and ages, the introduction of improved species of animais and 
vegetables, the creation of industrial ardor and emulation by a properly 
graduated classification of functions, the immense economies resulting 
from general combination, and above all, the increased zeal and energy 
which will spring from a system of attractive industry. 


APPENDIX. 


NOTE FIRST. 

THE THREE DISTRIBUTIVE OR REGULATIVE PASSIONS.— SEE PAGE 60. 

In the chapters on the Series, Fourier explains briefly and from one 
point of view the three Forces of the soul, which he terms the Regu¬ 
lative, Directing or Distributive Passions. His object is to exhibit their 
action in creating in the Series the three /following effects : 1. Disso¬ 

nance and Rivalry ; 2. Accord and corporate League ; 3. Alternation 
and Equilibrium. These three principles, he maintains, exist every¬ 
where in Nature. In music, for example, they are the dissonance 
or discord of notes ; their accords ; and their modulations from key 
•to key. In the planetary world, the two first are the centrifugal and 
the centripetal force's. In mathematics, the first corresponds to sub¬ 
traction and division ; the second, to addition and multiplication; the 
third, to proportions and equations. In the moral nature of man, 
they are the sentiments: first, of Individuality ; second, of Collectivity; 
third, of Alternation or the love of change and variety, leading to a 
balanced action in the play of the passions, and hence to equilibrium. 

We will endeavor to give some slight idea of the nature of these 
three Forces, so that the reader may form a conception of what Fou¬ 
rier means by his “ Distributive Passions.” 

The first force or passion — the Dissonant or Emulative — is, if we 
analyze it carefully, the separating, dividing, analyzing and individual¬ 
izing faculty of the Soul. Its function is to separate Wholes into their 
constituent parts ; and when applied to the passions, to resolve them 
into their various shades, and thus call out all varieties of tastes and in¬ 
clinations. As each shade seeks to preserve its individuality, asserting 
its legitimacy and excellence, it is in dissonance, in competition, in 
emulation with contiguous shades. Were it not in this state of disso- 



APPENDIX. 


274 

nance; were it to form a union with them, they would soon merge 
into a Whole, and all individuality and variety would be lost. The 
function, then, of the Faculty is to decompose the Passions as wholes, 
to resolve them into their constituent parts or shades, and excite disso¬ 
nance and rivalry between them. In its complex action, it gives rise, 
in conjunction with other faculties, to those mental processes, termed 
analysis, causality, the capacity of planning and scheming, to diplomacy, 
management and intrigue. It will be best understood by observing 
its external manifestation, or the effects which it produces in the ex¬ 
ternal world, in acting on the individual man, and on masses of 
men. Acting on the individual man, it calls out special tastes and in¬ 
clinations, and excites dissonance and rivalry with tastes which closely 
resemble them, and between which comparisons may be made. Hence 
it gives rise to discussion, competition and emulation, and the various 
results which flow from them. Acting on masses of men, it separates 
them into parties, sects and cliques, and engenders party and sectarian 
spirit with its consequence^— party rivalry, intrigue, diplomacy, etc. 
In Civilization, without counterpoises, and a proper field of action, it 
runs into excesses, and engenders inimical competition, envious rivalry, 
and party and sectarian strife. 

Operating in the intellectual or scientific sphere, this faculty analyzes 
perceptions, observations and ideas, and performs a part in the work* 
of classification, coordination, and systematization. 

As the material creations are the product and, as a consequence, the 
manifestation of that active, creative Principle in the Universe, which 
we call mind, spirit. God, they are emblems of the modes of activity 
of that Principle. We find, consequently, this analytic or individual¬ 
izing force — which is a faculty in the Divine as it is in the human 
mind — symbolized in the phenomena of the material world, as in 
the creations of man. In music, it is, as we said, the discord be¬ 
tween contiguous notes; in mathematics, it is subtraction and division; 
in gravitation, it is the centrifugal force; in Nature generally, it is 
the repulsion which exists between contiguous shades. 

The opposite Faculty to the above, which Fourier terms the Concor¬ 
dant, the Composite, produces a directly opposite effect. It is the com¬ 
bining, uniting, synthesizing force in the soul. (By the sohl, let us 
repeat, we understand the active Principle in man —that W T hole, of 
which the passions and faculties are the component parts.) The func¬ 
tion of this force is to combine, unite, and group together the shades 


APPENDIX. 


275 


or varieties of a passion, which are concordant and in affinity. In 
passional dynamics, that is, in the play and action of the passions, it 
produces accord, concert and league between tastes and inclinations, 
which are in affinity, either of identity or of contrast; by this union of 
sympathies, it generates enthusiasm and exaltation. Acting on the in¬ 
dividual, it awakens cooperative sympathy, the desire of union, of 
accord, of league; acting on masses of men, it leads to the formation 
of parties, unions and corporations, and develops cooperative zeal, 
esprit de corps and corporate devotion. 

Operating in the intellectual or scientific sphere, it combines and 
synthesizes perceptions and ideas, and aids in its way in the work 
of classification and coordination. When the first described faculty — 
the Separative, the Analytic — decomposes a whole into its parts, the 
Combining or Synthetic faculty unites those which agree, or are in 
affinity, and forms new combinations. The latter gives rise to affinity 
and sympathy. 

The third of the regulative or serializing faculties is the Alternating 
and Modulating. Its function in passional dynamics is to produce 
change, alternation and variety in the play of the other forces of 
the soul, to call them, successively and alternately into action, and pro¬ 
duce, as a result, variety, movement, progress, the balancing of powers 
and equilibrium. It governs modulations in the passions and in social 
relations, as the Emulative governs discords, and as the Composite 
governs accords. By alternating between these two latter forces, it 
balances the action of the two principles of individuality and col¬ 
lectivity. Acting on the individual, it impels him to changes of pur¬ 
suits and pleasures ; acting on masses of men, it produces the same 
result in parties, sects and other combinations. 

In the intellectual sphere, by alternating from analysis, or the per¬ 
ception of differences, to synthesis, or the perception of resemblances, 
it enables the mind to exercise the faculty of Comparison. 

That these faculties exist in man is evident, as we see their action 
in all his operations. They are the forces that distribute, combine, 
coordinate and classify, or we may say, serialize, the play and action 
of the other forces of the soul.. 

The metaphysicians have observed them only under one aspect, that 
is. as reasoning or intellectual faculties, and hence have given no com¬ 
plete theory of them. The Phrenologists are more full and practical in 
their analysis, but they have given only a partial theory of them ; they 


276 


APPENDIX. 


have not explained their function in social mechanics, which is to 
establish order and harmony in the play of the other passional forces 
of the soul, and, as a consequence, in social relations, or the external 
effects of these forces. It is true that Phrenology could not enter into 
an analysis of this latter effect, as it does not know that social har¬ 
mony is some day to be established on the earth, and that the first 
function of these and • other forces of the soul is to secure that result. 
As the nature of a system of forces, like the passions, can not be 
understood, unless their functions and also their relation to the end 
for which they were created, are understood, it follows that no true 
and complete theory of the passions can be given unless their functions 
in social mechanics, and their relation to human destiny, are compre¬ 
hended. Phrenology studies the individual Man, and studies him act¬ 
ing in a false state of society. It comprehends, consequently, only one 
side of his nature — the individual, but not the collective. 

The faculties which Phrenology describes under the names of caus¬ 
ality, comparison, ideality, constructiveness, wit, are branches of the 
regulative or serializing forces. Causality is a branch of the Analytic 
faculty; ideality and constructiveness, of the Combining or Synthetic 
faculty; wit, for example, is the result of one of the modes of action 
of Comparison, perceiving with the aid of the analytic faculty differ¬ 
ence between things which are alike ; and with the aid of the syn¬ 
thetic faculty, resemblances between things which are unlike. 

The three forces or faculties, which we are describing, operate in a 
compound or double manner. The distinction is important; we will 
indicate it. 

First : they operate within Man, impelling him in the three modes 
described in the chapters on the Series; they combine, cobrdinate and 
regulate, or serialize his social relations with those of other beings. 

Second : with or through them Man operates on external things — 
combining, coordinating and classifying them, and establishing method 
and order in the domain subject to his action. 

Operating on or in Man, their function is, in a system of society 
adapted to their natural action, to combine and coordinate properly his 
relations with his fellow-men, and establish as a result unity and har* 
mony in the social world. Man, considered as a note in a great social 
concert, is by their regulative action harmonized in his relations with 
the other notes in the social concert. 

On the other hand, Man, operating with the aid of these faculties 


APPENDIX. 


277 


on external things, serializes and establishes system and order in them. 
Operating, for example, on observations and ideas, he analyzes, com¬ 
pares and synthesizes them, and creates the Sciences. Operating on 
the notes of music, he distributes, combines and arranges them in a cer¬ 
tain manner, and creates musical harmony. It is with the same 
faculties that a great General combines the various parts of an army, 
distributing them in a series, with a center and wings, and plans their 
movements. It is with them that a scientific genius analyzes, com¬ 
pares and combines the facts or phenomena of a department of crea¬ 
tion. discovers in them their natural order, and creates a Science ; it 
was with their aid that Newton thus constructed a theory of gravita¬ 
tion ; that Cuvier classified the animal kingdom ; that Napoleon ma- 
neeuvred his armies. 

When these forces operate on Man and impel him to act, they ap¬ 
pear as passions or impulses ; and the names of rivalry, emulation, 
cooperative sympathy, enthusiasm, esprit de corps, love of change and 
variety, are given them. 

When Man employs them in combining, classifying and systematiz¬ 
ing external things or ideas, they appear as intellectual faculties ; and 
the names of analysis, comparison, causality and constructiveness, are 
then applied to them. 

Thus, they operate on Man, considered as an element of a whole, 
called Society, and combine and regulate his action with the other 
elements of the whole. And man, in turn, operates with their aid on 
the elements of the external world, which come under his control, 
and combines and regulates them. 

This double action of the classifying or serializing forces has not 
been perceived by those who have made mental philosophy a study. 
They have not, in consequence, been able to understand the nature 
of the principle op Order in Man, which operates on him, regulat¬ 
ing his action in Society; and he through it on those external things, 
which it is his function to harmonize. 

Reason is this principle of Order. It is a whole, composed of the 
three forces or faculties we have described. These forces, acting on 
man, are what Fourier terms the three Distributive Passions ; oper¬ 
ating through man on external things, they are the reasoning faculties 
— the analytic, the comparing and the synthetic. 

As the latter action only of these forces or faculties has been 


23 


278 


APPENDIX. 


studied, no complete theory of that power in man which serializes, and 
Which reasons, has been discovered. 

Fourier has studied the Principle of Order in man from the active 
or passional side; that is, as passions or impulses operating on the 
other forces of the soul, combining and harmonizing their play and 
action; he has not studied them from their passive or intellectual side; 
that is, as faculties, operating on observations and ideas, combining 
and coordinating them. As he did not occupy himself with abstract or 
metaphysical subjects, he overlooked or rather neglected this latter side ; 
that is, supposing that the compound or double action of the three 
Forces really takes place according to the theory which we have above 
given. 

In concluding, we will remark that the function of Reason is not 
to control, change, modify or repress the action of the passions, as is 
now generally believed; it is simply to combine and coordinate their 
play and action, to serialize their developments, and in so doing pro¬ 
duce passional harmony. The musician does not seek to change the 
nature of the notes of music on which he operates; he seeks to com¬ 
bine them according to their natural laws so as to create musical 
harmony. The function of Reason is, in relation to the passions, an 
analogous one ; it is not to change and modify, to repress or suppress 
the passions, but to combine, coordinate and classify, that is, serialize, 
their developments. 

NOTE SECOND. 

TnE SERIES.—SEE PAGE 68. 

We make the following extract from one of Fourier’s unpublished 
MSS., which presents in a clear and practical manner an idea of the 
Passional Series : 

lt A Tassional Series is an affiliated society or union of persons, 
composed of several Groups; these Groups represent the different 
shades of a Passion, and are to the Series what the species are to the 
genus; each Group exercises one of the shades or varieties of the 
generic Passion—or Passion which gives rise to the Series —but not 
all of them. Thus a Group of women of the constant type, and an¬ 
other of the romantic or coquettish, feel two kinds or varieties of Love 
of an opposite nature, but which belong to, or are branches of the 
same Passion. 


APPENDIX. 


m 


11 Each Group must be composed of individuals feeling an enthusi¬ 
asm for some one branch of the generic passion, and inclined at the 
same time to disparage the other branches — to look upon them as less 
excellent. 

“The operation of a Passional Series is analogous to that of a geo¬ 
metrical series; the product of the extremes is equal to the square of 
the mean term. The two extreme groups agree together, and form a 
league against the central group; the latter, from rivalry, seeks to 
surpass the others in devotion and generosity. It is understood that 
this generous rivalry takes place only in relation to matters out of the 
sphere of the generic passion, or the passion which gives rise to the 
Series. The varieties of a Passion tend to excite discord between the 
different Characters which feel them, and to form them into hetero¬ 
geneous and incompatible groups; and this very discord becomes the 
principle of their generous emulation in everything out of the sphere 
of the generic passion. The rivalry which exists between the groups 
stimulates each of them to signalize itself by noble acts, to enhance 
the iclat and palliate the eccentricities of its favorite shade of the 
passion. 

11 The power or influence of the central group is as it were re¬ 
doubled, multiplied by itself, because it is the center of opposition for 
the two extreme groups, which are in accord with each other. The 
result is an equilibrium which regulates the general opinion of the Se¬ 
ries in any affair under consideration; and all the intermediate groups 
between the central one arid the extremes, present increasing and de¬ 
creasing diversities of opinion. 

“ Thus we see that, in the Harmonic Order, all men are not broth¬ 
ers and friends. To abolish differences of opinion, contrasts of charac¬ 
ter, or antipathies even, would be to destroy the spice of life. But it 
must be observed that in the play of the Series, these passional disso¬ 
nances operate between group and group, and not between individual 
and individual. It matters little that the various groups are in dis¬ 
cord, provided there exist ties of sympathy between the individuals 
composing them out of the sphere of the generic passion. 

“ The more a Series is subject to internal dissonance, based on dif¬ 
ference of tastes and opinions, the more prodigies it works for external 
concord. The concurrence of these two opposite influences is only a 
repetition of what takes place in material harmony, where we always 
find equilibrium established by the action of two forces, one of which 


280 


APPENDIX. 


is the inverse of the other. Thus in the planetary movements we find 
the centrifugal and the centripetal action. 

“ When the four Cardinal Passions, which lead to the formation of 
social ties, can act freely in a social Order in which reign great abund¬ 
ance and entire unconcern for the morrow, and in which neither co¬ 
ercion nor prejudice exist, the human race tends to form Series of 
Groups in the play of all the Passions, and to always separate and 
classify the different shades or varieties of a passion, each of which 
gives rise to a group of the series. 

“ We find the germ of the Series in the inclination which is com¬ 
mon to every man to praise up his particular shade or variety of taste 
and believe it preferable to similar tastes, while he pays no attention 
.to those which are wholly different and, therefore, admit of no compar¬ 
ison. Take, for example, several classes of men whose peculiar tastes 
are widely different, such as painters and poets, architects and musi¬ 
cians ; you will find the painter indifferent to the pursuit of the poet, 
and the architect to that of the musician, but it will not be the same 
with the painters or poets among themselves. Each will boast the su¬ 
periority of his favorite branch of art, and this will give rise to a 
classification of the parties into various groups, each group sustaining 
the superiority of its own favorite taste. 

“A party of fifty painters may be formed into seven or eight groups 
of as many different tastes; there would then exist among them the 
germ of a Series. This germ can not exist among fifty individuals 
whose tastes are uniform. Fifty painters of one taste, say for the 
Flemish school, would form a Group of painters, not a series of paint¬ 
ers ; but if among the fifty, eight were for the Flemish school, ten for 
the Roman school, fifteen for the Venetian school, they would then 
form a Series of painters. 

“Now, supposing God designed to form the human race in Series 
in order to organize Harmony, we can then understand why he has 
given to human beings so great a diversity of tastes, and so much per¬ 
sistency in defending and extolling their favorite opinions; for with¬ 
out divergent and rival tastes the Series could not be formed. 

“We see, then, how absurd are the lamentations of the moralists 
who, not having discovered that man was destined for the Series, com¬ 
plain that we are not all in accord, all of one mind, all brothers and 
friends, eating black broth out of the same dish like the Spartans. 

“An orchestra or a choir furnishes an image or emblem of the Se- 


APPENDIX. 


281 


ries. If all voices were of the same kind, if all musicians studied but 
one instrument, how could it be possible to form orchestras or choirs, 
which are nothing but assemblages or associations of various affiliated 
groups, exercising the different branches of the same species of art ? 
It is particularly in the Opera that God interprets to us his designs, 
by exhibiting to us Harmony produced by Series of Groups, and not 
by individuals acting incoherently, each according to his own fancy. 
The present Social Order may be compared to an Opera where the 
choristers and musicians should strive to see who cpuld sing or play 
the most out of tune, thus producing a frightful discord, analogous to 
that of Civilization, in which every one acts individually, and without 
Serial Order in the play of the Passions. 

“ It will be said, with reason, that men are right in declaiming 
against diversities of taste and opinion, even admitting that they would 
produce emulation and concord in the Series, since in the present So¬ 
cial Order they produce frightful discord. This God himself could not 
prevent. He can not have destined man to isolated and individual 
action; and if he has adapted harmony to the collective action of the 
passions, it is in the order of things that individual action, out of the 
Groups and Series, should cause universal discord.’’ 

********* 

In another part of the MSS. he says : 

u Whence comes the universal taste in all nations and among all 
races for whatever is regulated by the Measured Series — for poetry, 
for music, for the dance — which are measured harmonies applied to 
language, to sound and to movement ? These measured harmonies are 
found even among the most savage tribes ; they spring up as by in¬ 
stinct in regions where the inclemency of the climate would seem cal¬ 
culated to destroy all the illusions of art. Among the ices of the 
North, we find the native bards cultivating poetry, music, and the 
dance, and in our own time the Ossianic Muse still gives delight to 
the most polished nations. The rude Savages of Northern Siberia, 
people more like brutes than men, have also their imperfect verse, 
their coarse music, and their /grotesque dances; the art of measured 
harmonies is on a level with their social condition, but it still exists, 
and is everywhere an accompaniment and support of religion. Among 
Savages, the rude tribute of measured art is offered in homage to the 
Divinity, while in Civilized nations, harmonies — poetic, vocal and in¬ 
strumental—contribute to the lustre of all religious solemnities. The 


282 


APPENDIX. 


dance, which was formerly admitted among the rites of Religion, fig¬ 
ures among them no longer. Is not this omission the effect of corrup¬ 
tion rather than of reverence ? The Psalmist danced before the Ark 
of the Covenant; David, then, thought the dance an homage worthy 
of the Creator. If David was deceived as to the honors which should 
be rendered to the Deity, how is it that our modern religions address 
to God no other praises than those which come from the muse of (his 
Poet-King, who thought that, in the offerings of holy joy and pious 
fervor, the dance should be united before the altar with music and 
poetry. Everything connected with measured harmony becomes wor¬ 
thy of our respect as an act of union with Divinity. It is already said 
that poetry is the language of the gods ; this is a truth of sentiment 
as well as of reason. The Lyric bard is looked upon by us as a being 
in communion with Divinity; we would have him address the gods 
as one with them — would have him act upon and move the most in¬ 
flexible of deities, as we read in the following noble strophe of the 
French Pindar: — 

‘ C’est ainsi qif au-dela de la fatale barque 
Ma voix adoucirait de l’orgueilleuse paique 
L’impitoyable loi; 

Lachesis apprendrait a devenir sensible, 

Et le double ciseau de sa soeur inflexible 
Tomberait devant moi.’ 

“ This privilege of the Divine language, this power of communion 
with the gods, which is given to us by Poetry and Music, a power 
which belongs to all measured harmonies, is truly an inspiration of 
God, who manifests himself especially in measured harmonies, in which 
he delights — as we see in his most sublime work, in the harmony of 
the planets, which despite the inconceivable rapidity of their move¬ 
ment, are so regular in their gravitation that our globe traverses every 
year more than two hundred millions of leagues within a given minute. 

u The principal measured harmonies known to man are the Mathe¬ 
matical and the Musical. Hence these are preeminently the Divine 
language; Mathematics by exactness, Music by harmony. Now if the 
Human Passions were excluded from this system of measured harmony, 
which in our eyes is the seal of Divine Order in the material world, 
where would be the Unity of system in the Universe ? So long as we 
fail to recognize the spirit of God in Material harmonies, we. are un¬ 
worthy of knowing his designs in respect to Passional harmonies, in 


APPENDIX, 283 

which the measured Order should especially reign, since the Passions 
are the portion of the Universe most identified with God.* 

“ We should have foreseen the destiny of the Passional world from 
observing the rigorous exactitude which God observes in all measured 
movements. Measure must have been of great value in his eyes fur 
him to have restricted the planets to rotations and orbits so exact that 
they traverse thousands of millions of leagues to a minute. And from 
this regularity in the sidereal system we may judge how impassioned 
God must be for precision of movement and for the general combina¬ 
tion of motors and their effects. We have scarcely a finer example of 
this, after the harmony of the Planets, than is found in the harmony 
of Sounds. 

“Music is for Man an abridgment of the system of universal Har¬ 
mony, a faithful picture of the play of the Measured Series, which op¬ 
erate only by masses of groups, arranged in octaves, like musical 
sounds. Men should have perceived long since, that there was some 
divine revelation, some speaking analogy in Music — the true language 
of collective harmony in the material world — and that if Man is des¬ 
tined to discover the laws of Passional harmony, he should seek its 
emblems and rules in the harmonies of music, which must coincide 
with all the harmonies. Material and Passional, of the Universe; if 
this were not so, we could not conceive Unity of system in the Uni¬ 
verse, or in the designs of God.” 

THE SENSE IN WHICH FOURIER USES THE TERM SERIES. 

By a Series is commonly understood a succession of things of a 
similar kind, distributed in a certain regular and consecutive order. 
Thus we speak of a chain as a Series of links; of the seven prismatic 
colors as a Series of colors; of the seven diatonic notes as a Series 
of sounds; we also speak of a Series of kings, of events, etc. In this 
sense, a Series is merely a row of things, following one another at 
fixed intervals. This is not the meaning which Fourier attaches to 
the term; such a succession, he calls a Scale or Gamut — borrowing 


*“The Passional System is an echo of all the accords established in Nature; or, 
rather, Nature is the echo and emblem of the Passions, for Goo, in order to create 
the Universe according to the laws of eternal justice, must have depicted Himself 
in Creation, and consequently have depicted in it the twelve Passions, which are hia 
essence, and the play of those Passions in all their possible developments.” 



284 


APPENDIX. 


the latter term from music. By a Series, he understands: first, the 
union or the assembling in Groups of the constituent parts or elements 
of any whole, which by their nature are suited to each other and can 
be classed together; and, second, the distribution of these Groups in 
a center and wings, forming a higher organization, which is the Series. 
A Series should consist of at least three Groups, so as to form, a Cen¬ 
ter and two Wings. The Center should balance the combined action 
or influence of the Wings; and the Wings that of the Center. A Se¬ 
ries would thus form an Equation , — the different parts balancing each 
other, and the whole being self-sustaining. The Series, then, in Fou¬ 
rier's sense, is not a simple succession of things or elements, but an 
organic combination and classification of the parts of a whole, dis¬ 
tributed in Groups according to their natural affinities and repulsions, 
their accords and dissonances; and the Groups in turn distributed 
in a Center and Wings according to the same law of affinity and 
repulsion. 

We will explain by a practical example the difference between the 
two kinds of Series. Were the bones of the human body separated 
and arranged in a row according to their size, or some other property, 
they would form the simple Series first spoken of. If we take these 
bones as they are in the skeleton — as Nature has arranged them — 
we find that they are distributed or classed in Groups. The bones of 
the hand, for example, form one Group ; those of the foot, another 
Group ; those of the skull, a third, and so on. If we then take these 
Groups as they are arranged or coordinated in the skeleton, forming a 
whole which is a regular organization with its Center and Wings, we 
have a Series in the sense used by Fourier. Again, if we take the 
varieties of a fruit, say the pear, and distribute these varieties in a 
successive order, according to size or time of ripening, we have a 
simple Series. If, on the other hand, we unite or combine varieties, 
which, according to certain laws of relationship should be classed to¬ 
gether, and form Groups of them,—we will suppose four Groups of the 
Bartlet pear, five of the Butter, and three of the Vergalo,— and then 
arrange these Groups in a Center and Wings, so that the accord and 
dissonance of similar and dissimilar varieties may be brought out, we 
then have the organic Series, or that of Fourier. In fact by the Se¬ 
ries he understands Nature’s system of organization — her plan of dis¬ 
tribution, combination and classification. He observes this system 
everywhere in the material world where order and organization exist; 


APPENDIX. 


285 


he believes that it must exist also in the world of forces — the highest 
branch of which is the Passions; for the order, the arrangement which 
reign in the phenomena of the material world, are but the manifesta¬ 
tion of the forces which produce them. The Passions, then, according 
to this law of unity of system, tend naturally to act, to operate in 
Series of Groups, to form them in every way; and the social rela¬ 
tions of human beings, which are the external effects of the Passions, 
should be organized in Series of Groups in order to allow the passion¬ 
al forces a true development. 

Let Industry and social Institutions be organized in Series of 
Groups, and the result will be that, first, a free development of all the 
shades or varieties of each Passion, and, second, their natural play 
or action, will be secured—establishing the reign of passional or so¬ 
cial harmony; that is, a concert of varied passional elements, a har¬ 
monic combination of the constituent shades of each passion—a con¬ 
cert of which music offers the finest example, it being the full and nat¬ 
ural development of all sounds, and their harmonious distribution and 
combination. 

NOTE THIRD. 

THE COLLECTIVE OR SOCIAL MAN.— SEE PAGE 84. 

(FROM FOURIER.) 

Man, in the material sense, is composed of two individuals — one 
male, the other female. Analyze a hundred couples of both sexes, and 
on dissection they will be found (except in cases of malformation) to 
possess a uniform number of muscles, nerves, viscera, etc.; no one 
among this hundred couples will be found with eleven or thirteen pairs 
of ribs, twenty-three or twenty-five vertebra}, fifteen or seventeen pairs 
of teeth ; variations infinitely rare, like the absence of a pair of teeth; 
the addition of a sixth finger or sesamoidal bone, are deformities and 
not differences of species. . The human species, then, in the mate¬ 
rial sense, is composed of two bodies, a male and a female; and one 
such couple, taken at hazard, furnishes the complete type of the 
Material Man. It is not so with the Passional Man ; he is a compound 
Whole, composed of 810 individual souls or distinct characters, dis¬ 
tributed in Series in about the proportion of 21 males to 20 females. 

A hundred couples, compared in a material sense, will be found 
anatomically homogeneous; but the same couples compared in a 
23 * “ 


286 - 


appendix. 


passional sense, or according to their characters, will be found radi¬ 
cally different from each other; among some, avarice would predomi¬ 
nate. among others prodigality ; ^ one would incline to frankness, an¬ 
other to deceit, and so on ; whence it is evident that the Passional 
Man is nowise complete in a single couple, as is the case with the 
Material Man ; he is as far from complete in 100 couples, and would 
also be in 405 taken at hazard, since the assortment of characters 
might be defective and very discordant. To compose an Integral or 
Combined Soul, the characters of various degrees must “be brought to¬ 
gether in graduated proportion, and arranged in classes, orders, genera, 
species and varieties, as we arrange progressively the pipes of an 
organ. Let us add that among the 810 individuals forming the 810 
characters, there must be 415 men and 395 women, so that there are 
not 405 of each sex. 

When the 810 characters are brought together and fully developed, 
forming the complete Passional Man, we shall see them attracted 
naturally, without the least constraint, to all the functions of agricul¬ 
ture, manufactures, science, and art — the children spontaneously with 
their parents, and all with enthusiastic ardor. It will be seen that in 
this new Order the poorest individual may develop and satisfy many 
more of the Passions of the Soul than the richest Potentate can do at 
the present day, and the greater the inequalities in fortune, intelli¬ 
gence, etc., the easier will Association rise to a general Accord, which 
will be as perfect as that of the muscles of the body, or the various 
instruments of a good orchestra — the latter being an image of the 
Human Passions, which constitute an orchestra of 810 instruments. 

In speaking of the integrality of the Soul, we have to rectify a fun¬ 
damental error as respects the Passional Man. Every individual be¬ 
lieves that he possesses a complete integral Soul; this i^ an error 
more gross than would be that of a soldier who should pretend that 
he formed by himself an entire regiment; the reply would be (sup¬ 
posing the regiment to contain a thousand men) that he formed but a 
thousandth part of it. The error of such a soldier would be far less 
absurd than that which has been committed in respect to the integ¬ 
rality of the Soul, for the soldier is of the same nature as the cap¬ 
tain and the colonel; he may replace them, whereas in the great 
scale of Characters, a Soul with one dominant Passion, or Passion fully 
developed, is of a very different nature from a soul with two, thrde 
or four dominant Passions, and can not take its place. Let us make 






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